Local festivals are considered as simultaneously “cultural” and “economic” phenomena (McCann 2002 [32] ) since they have audiences, use facilities and equipment, and entail some kind of service provision. They may be run by non-profit committees, municipalities or government agencies, as well as by private sector interests, using paid, unpaid and volunteer labour. They can be effective contributors to urban and regional development, provided, of course, that their core “business” remains the flourishing of the local cultural sector itself and its local creators and producers (CER 2013). In order to assess how small scale festivals, like local products festivals, act as mechanisms to encourage regional economic development and tourism attraction in host communities, it is essential to explore the local products notion.
Each region produces some products that are considered to be local for they attribute an individual identity to the region and they define the preferences of the population as well as the cultural influence of the outside world upon them. Local products are considered to be the core for the development of a region since they can make it widely popular (Pitoska, 2012) [33] . Every place has its own characteristics, natural resources and a special local identity that makes it unique. All those characteristics should be designated and the traditional products should be able to include the cultural identity of each place.
[32] McCann E (2002) The cultural politics of local economic development: Meaning-making, place-making, and the urban policy process. Geoforum 33:385-98
[33] Pitoska, E. (2012) Perspectives and possibilities of development for traditional Greek products: The Kozani’s Saffron case, Proceedings of the Management of International Business and Economics Systems (MIBES) International Conference, Larissa, 25-27 May 2012, ISBN: 978-960-9510-06-6, pp. 445-457