Purpose Festivals in many regions of the world are sources of attraction to tourists. Festivals have become of great significance to many people especially in areas where tradition, norms and values of the society are still being upheld of which Yoruba land in Nigeria is not an exception. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the patronage and factors influencing patronage of Olojo and Ojude Oba festival, in Southwestern Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Purposive sampling technique was used to select Ojude Oba and Olojo festivals based on popularity among other identified festivals in the study areas. Convenience sampling technique was employed to select 210 and 114 Patrons from Ojude Oba and Olojo festivals, respectively. Preliminary survey showed that there were 4,294 and 3,124 buildings around the venues of the festivals in Ijebu-Ode and Ile-Ife, respectively. Therefore, systematic sampling technique was employed to select one out of every 40th buildings (2.5 per cent) where a household head will be sampled for questionnaire administration. Consequently, 107 and 78 household heads were sampled, respectively, from Ijebu-ode and Ile-Ife. This gave a total of 324 patrons and 185 residents for the study. Findings Findings established that the factors influencing patronage of cultural festival comprises festival anxiety, promotion of community cultural heritage, socio-cultural development, infrastructural development, improved town liveability, ethno-cultural unity, entertainment, income generation and public enlightenment factors accounting for 14.78, 13.20, 10.44, 6.20, 5.68, 5.59, 5.00, 4.93 and 4.88 per cent variations of the total factors that influenced patronage of Olojo and Ojude Oba festival. Originality/value The implication of the findings is that patrons attended the festival and events for leisure purpose, whereas the aspiration, promotion of community cultural heritage, socio-cultural development, infrastructural development, improved town liveability, ethno-cultural unity, entertainment, income generation and public enlightenment are the underlining factors of motivation to purchase and repurchase the festival.