Abstract
The Afrikaans language celebrated 100 years of existence in 2025, and one of the most prominent platforms promoting the language, through various forms of art, is the Afrikaans national arts festivals. South Africa hosts five major Afrikaans national arts festivals, namely Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), Innibos Lowveld National Arts Festival, Toyota US Woordfees, Vrystaat Arts Festival, and Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees. Each of these festivals offers a broad range of activities, including children’s theatre productions, outdoor entertainment, music performances and arts and crafts markets. Despite the significant economic contribution of festivals, the family market remains relatively underexplored within both tourism and festival research, particularly in the South African context. This gap may be attributed to the multidimensional and dynamic nature of family travel behaviour.
Festival organisers are under increasing pressure to continually innovate and differentiate their programmes, as oversaturation of similar activities may weaken a festival’s unique value offering. Festival offerings should therefore align with both children’s ages and parents’ spending behaviour. This complexity highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the family market, attending individual festivals, particularly because these events are hosted in different provinces and at different times of the year. A market-specific approach is therefore necessary not only to maintain a competitive advantage, but also to position festivals more effectively within increasingly segmented cultural tourism markets. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate Afrikaans family festival visitors and their motivations for attending Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees.
This empirical study was exploratory in nature and used Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees as a case study. A quantitative research design employing a self-administered questionnaire was followed. A new survey instrument was developed, consisting of two sections. Section A captured the demographic and family profile of respondents, including age, gender, level of education, and the ages of children attending the festival with their parents. Section B consisted of 22 statements relating to aspects influencing family attendance at the festival. Respondents indicated the importance of each statement on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (unimportant) to 5 (extremely important).
A purposive sampling technique was applied. Data were collected among parents attending Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees from 7 to 11 October 2025 with their children. Potential respondents were identified at family-friendly theatre productions and children’s activity areas on the festival grounds. Where both parents were present, only one parent participated in the survey. No public data are currently available regarding total attendance at Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees in 2025. The most recent available statistics indicate that approximately 150 000 visitors attended the festival in 2016. Based on the sampling formula, proposed by Krejcie and Morgan (1970), a sample size of 375 respondents is representative of the population. However, it should be noted that this population estimate reflects total festival attendance and not specifically family attendance. Furthermore, only one respondent per family completed the questionnaire. A total of 239 usable questionnaires were included in the analysis.
Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS (Version 30.0). Descriptive statistics were first used to profile respondents, followed by an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify underlying motivational dimensions.
The majority of respondents were female, Afrikaans-speaking, aged 29–40 years, and graduated with a postgraduate qualification. Most families originated from the North West Province, followed by Gauteng and the Free State. Families generally consisted of two children, with the youngest and oldest children averaging 5 and 7 years old, respectively. Respondents spent an average of two days at the festival.
Three individual motivational aspects emerged as the most influential in affecting attendance: the opportunity to broaden the family’s cultural horizons, the opportunity to strengthen family bonds, and the value for money. In contrast, traditional promotional methods such as newspaper advertisements, local radio interviews, and roadside billboards along school routes were the least influential on this market segment.
The exploratory factor analysis identified four underlying motivational factors: theatre production offerings, festival site offerings, marketing, and personal needs. Theatre production offerings and festival site offerings emerged as the strongest attendance motivators among family visitors.
The findings suggest several practical implications for festival organisers, marketers, and theatre producers. From the demographic profile, it is evident that the festival programming should consider the ages of the family unit and align its offerings with the evolving needs of this market segment to encourage repeat visitation. As children grow into teenagers, the festival has an opportunity to progressively adapt its family-oriented offerings to maintain relevance and foster continued engagement.
The results further indicate that the festival should place greater emphasis on offerings that appeal to families as collective units. Afrikaans artists such as Kurt Darren, Bernice West, and Bobby van Jaarsveld may be important draws due to their broad intergenerational appeal and strong cultural connection with Afrikaans-speaking audiences. However, affordability remains critical, as value for money emerged as a key motivator for attendance. The introduction of family ticket packages for two adults and two children may therefore improve accessibility and perceived value.
The most significant finding of this study was that personal needs emerged as the least influential motivational factor among family festival visitors. This finding contrasts with both national and international festival literature, which consistently identifies personal needs as important attendance motivators. Within the South African arts festival context, previous studies have shown that factors such as prior exposure to the arts, identity formation, and emotional attachment to festivals play a critical role in fostering visitor loyalty and sustained festival participation. However, the present finding suggests that decision-making within the family market is influenced less by individual motivations and more by collective family priorities.
This finding raises important concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of arts festivals. The existing literature emphasises that parents’ personal experiences, cultural values, and emotional attachment to festivals significantly influence the cultural exposure they provide their children, as well as perceptions of value and future arts participation. Such emotional and psychological “push” factors, which develop over time through continued involvement in the arts, are often regarded as more influential than traditional marketing strategies. The limited influence of personal needs identified in this study may therefore indicate a declining culture of arts engagement within the family market. Festival organisers and marketers should therefore reconsider the strategic focus of their marketing approaches by placing greater emphasis on cultivating emotional connections between families and the arts. The festival should actively promote meaningful family experiences, nostalgia, cultural identity, and long-term emotional engagement rather than focusing solely on programme information. Re-establishing a stronger culture of arts participation among families may ultimately prove essential to ensuring the sustainability of Afrikaans national arts festivals, more specifically, Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees.
The study contributes theoretically to the limited body of research on festival market segmentation within South Africa and the broader African context. Furthermore, the study provides a foundation for replicating the methodology at other Afrikaans arts festivals and cultural festivals elsewhere in Africa. From a practical perspective, the findings may assist festival organisers and marketers in developing more targeted family-oriented strategies and in re-evaluating existing family-friendly offerings. Ultimately, these insights may contribute to increased arts participation, enhanced cultural appreciation, and the long-term sustainability of arts festivals.
Keywords: Afrikaans arts festivals; attendance motivators; family market; family travel; purchasing behaviour
- This article’s featured image was created by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová and obtained from Pexels.