Urban Ethnic Festivals, Neighborhoods, and the Multiple Realities of Marketing Place

Cultural festivals are often planned as part of place marketing, image branding, and civic boosterism to aid in the regeneration of urban areas. While complexities surrounding place, marketing, and festivals have been acknowledged with regard to large scale events, little is known about ethnic festivals in urban neighborhoods. It is important to understand festival places and the factors that challenge place marketing in urban neighborhood spaces. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the multiple realities of place with respect to ethnic festivals. It is a case study approach of four neighborhoods and their street festivals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A discussion reveals such key realities as politics and image, social identity and representation, cultural authenticity and neighborhood differentiation as concerns for festival promotion and place marketing. In order to ensure ethnic festivals instil strong meanings of place and belonging for community members, place marketing must acknowledge the complexities of places and market and manage them properly relative to the developing community. The multiple realities of places at the scale of festival, neighborhood, and city need to be acknowledged in order to address the deeper meanings and complexities that exist with regard to these unique and evolving ethnic spaces.