Familiarity, involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intentions: the case of an African-American cultural festival

PurposeThe study investigates how cultural festival attendees’ familiarity and involvement may influence their overall satisfaction and future behavioral intentions towards the festival.Design/methodology/approachA path analysis is used to test the proposed model. The Sobel test is performed to determine the mediating role of attendee satisfaction on future behavioral intentions.FindingsAttendee familiarity positively and directly impacts attendee involvement. Attendee satisfaction mediates the relationship between involvement and intention to return to the festival. The findings did not demonstrate a relationship between attendee involvement and intention to recommend the cultural festival. Attendees’ intention to return to the festival positively and directly impacts intention to recommend the festival.Practical implicationsFor repeat cultural festival attendees, satisfaction is influenced by festival familiarity and involvement. As attendees become more satisfied with their festival involvement, their decision to return to the festival increases. The mediation effect of satisfaction indicates that this should be a priority, as it fully mediates the relationships. However, this is not the case as it relates to the intentions to recommend the festival.Originality/valueThe study contributes to literature on the impact of familiarity and involvement on repeat attendee satisfaction levels and how these relationships influence attendees’ decisions to return or recommend the festival. It is one of the first studies that investigates actual behavior of festival attendees, specifically in the context of an African-American cultural festival.