ABSTRACT
When it was first published in 2014, the book Doing Events Research: From Theory to Practice (Fox, Gouthro, Morakabati & Brackstone 2014) was the first service-sector research text to focus on event and festival applications specifically. Up until that point, students studying events- and festival-related courses were typically drawn to the ‘sister’ courses of tourism, leisure and hospitality that had trusted sources (for example, Smith 2010; Veal 2011) to help shape their understanding and research approach. However, in the recent past, academic discussions and contributions across the festival context continue to grow and mature. The aim of this chapter is to reflect how festival research has advanced in the recent past and to identify the current state of play. Accordingly, academic journal articles in the festival field and the methods of research applied are considered, and an appreciation for trend(s) and void(s) of these contributions is also acknowledged.
