Events and their impact on place - towards an international practice-based classification system

Events and festivals have been shown to be catalysts for place making, particularly in terms of community engagement, pride of place and even place branding, though the latter remains a contested topic. Whilst a substantial and growing body of literature exists on the impact of events and festivals on town and city centres, much of the focus of past research has been on economic and social issues. Yet, as the focus of event impact evaluation begins to shift towards their longer term legacy - the London Olympic Games have been a prime example of this -, this paper argues that the environmental impact research agenda will grow in importance and summarises some of the early findings of a pan-European research study led by the University of East London with project partners in ten different countries and funding from the European Regional Development Fund’s INTERREG IVC programme. In line with this and building on earlier work on town centre management and urban revitalisation schemes across Europe, this paper argues the case for the development of an international classification system for events and festivals that helps funders and local policy makers to compare international practice and improve decision making with regards to event planning, funding and implementation with particular emphasis on sustainability.