Improvisation music and art festivals and sustainability: the case of “Free Theatre of Monte Nerone”

Sustainable cultural events may contribute to the differentiation of the offers of cultural organizations and destinations, and to the diffusion of the sensitivity towards the issue of sustainability which is the basis for the adoption of sustainable behaviors. However, as regards improvisation music and art festivals, the cultural heritage management (CHM) literature lacks the full exploration of these special events connected to intangible/living cultural heritage and sustainability and tourism and thus in the identification of implications of such studies for destinations. The present study aims to fill this gap and contribute to explore through a case study the relationship between the core values, strategic objectives and offering a system of an improvisation music and art festival and sustainability, applying marketing concepts and Pine and Gilmore (1999) and Gronroos (2009) models. Results suggest that core values, strategic objectives and offering system of the festival analyzed are strictly related to the classic dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, economic) and to cultural sustainability; in particular, music and art improvisation performances in the forest can be considered sustainable experiences of living cultural heritage with potential positive effects in terms of group cohesion and social creativity. The main preliminary managerial implication of this study for destination manager and stakeholder consists of recognizing the importance of these creative and sustainable events and in investing them, both to enrich social and cultural life of residents and to improve the destinations’ attractiveness for tourists.