Guest editorial

The contribution of festivals and events towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Background to the special section By addressing economic, social and environmental issues, festivals and events are delivering short- and long-term benefits for stakeholders as well as society. According to the United Nations (UN), implementing innovation is the key to facilitating sustainable development and to address complex global issues related to society, the economy and/or the environment (United Nations, 2021). [...]Rossetti argues that five factors contribute to these dimensions, specifically festival programme, the social environment, place, weather conditions and attendees' background. Using South Africa as a case, her research is informed by key informants in the event industry in how curriculum design in undergraduate event management programmes instil sustainability concepts and practices, which are extremely vital to the healthy growth of the industry grooming tomorrow's leaders who are aware of potential environmental impacts and work on solutions to mitigate these issues.