Achieving significant event impacts for young residents of the host community: The Adelaide Fringe Festival

This chapter explores young people's experience of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, an annual arts event held in Adelaide, South Australia. With the increasing number of events. Previous studies have recognized numerous social outcomes of events, including their ability to create a greater awareness of the destination, sense of community and civic pride (Getz 1991; Fredline et al. 2006; Wood 2006; Arcodia and Whitford 2007). However, little research has focused on young residents' engagement in events. The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an event in which staff are recognizing the importance of young residents as their future audience. Consequently, they have made a concerted effort to engage young people in the festival by implementing a number of initiatives. This study will assess the success of these initiatives as well as the social outcomes of the event for young people.