Between Fire and Ice: Experiences of the Persian Fire Festival in a Nordic Setting

Abstract

This exploratory research seeks to gain insight into the visitors of Persian Fire Festival in Stockholm, their motivation, level of satisfaction and loyalty to the festival. The overall methodology is mixed methods consisting of participant observation and 280 completed online surveys including close-ended and open-ended questions. A Grounded theory analysis has been employed. The most important reason behind the participation has been to strive for the recognition of ethnic cultural identity; to keep the ancient culture alive; to maintain their ancestors’ legacy and transfer it to the next generation. Most of the visitors experienced positive feelings, showed satisfaction and loyalty, believed that the festival fulfilled their expectations and it should be celebrated officially every year. A minority showed dissatisfaction mostly due to the lack of accessibility to the event venue and might are not loyal to the festival. The first conclusion here is that these motivators are totally different than those mentioned by earlier research (e.g., escape, socialization, novelty, rest, prestige, excitement). Even though the desire to preserve the ancient culture and tradition is very strong, a lack of accessibility to the venue would constitute disloyalty and a barrier to re-attend in such a festival.

Disparate Emotions as Expressions of Well-Being: Impact of Festival Participation from the Participants’ Subjective View

“…One of these aspects is migrant cultural festivals which are considered a way to achieve faster mutual cultural integration between hosts and migrants [22,24]. An example of such a festival is the non-religious Fire Festival in Stockholm which celebrates the rebirth of nature with fire, that according to ancient tradition, symbolizes among other things health, luck, and prosperity [25].…”

“…In Stockholm, the festival has been celebrated annually since the early 1980s, mostly by people of Iranian origin in the Stockholm suburbs. The Swedish National Touring Theatre (henceforth Riksteatern) began, in 2010, to also officially organize the festival yearly in downtown Stockholm [25]. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration was canceled in 2020 but was restarted digitally (without the public) in 2021 and was broadcasted live through Internet TV.…”

The Influence of Personal Involvement on Festival Attendees’ Revisit Intention: Food and Wine Attendees’ Perspective

“…Additionally, scholars have noted that current research has only scratched the surface of this field of study; the methods used are still relatively crude, and the studies are often regionally focused and quite generic in nature [4,21]. As such, this research attempts to explore the structural relationships among the variables of motivation to attend a festival, different types of involvement in festival activities, tangible/intangible satisfaction, and loyalty in the context of food and wine festivals.…”