Publication Date
2021
Submission Type
Article
Abstract
Although festivals and events have been identified as a growth segment within tourism, smaller cultural festivals have received much less attention. These smaller cultural festivals aim to bring cultural contributions and increased well-being to attendees and the host community in addition to their economic value. More specifically, queer film festivals have increased in number and size within the last decade and have an important history and purpose within the LGBT2Q+ community. As such, the current study investigated the attendees of the 2019 & 2020 Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF), Western Canada’s largest queer film festival. The survey instrument asked attendees questions about subjective well-being, cultural/educational impacts, community benefits, future programming, and demographics. Preliminary results comparing demographic, behavioural, perceived benefit, and outcome characteristics between the 2019 in-person version and the 2020 virtual pandemic version of VQFF are discussed. Industry and academic implications and areas for future study are also considered.