Festival can be described as “a series of events which are adopted and turned into a tradition by a local community, celebrated on certain dates. These events which have become a symbol of the region are held together and refresh the collective memory of the community.” The origin of the word is “festa” in Latin. It was first used at the beginning of 1200s and adapted to Turkish as it is. As in many examples like “Bolu White Meat Festival” or “Mengen Cooks Festival”, the venue is cleaned and decorated, and the participants eat until they are full.

According to the information based on the data of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there are approximately 323 events named as festival, fair, special day and feast in 81 cities of Turkey.

Some of the festivals become famous in all around Turkey, even internationally, some are known just in their own region with a limited budget. Some of the events have the same name, but are celebrated in different districts of the same city on different dates. Such popular events can be called as special event in English. There are main differences between these special events and the others as below:

Special events

• are held once in a year,
• are open to public,
• aim to celebrate a specific theme or to promote a product,
• opening and closing dates are certain,
• may not continue,
• may include different activities and exhibitions on the agenda,
• can be considered as other than a special event (like EXPO, EMITT Tourism Fair etc.) no matter its scale, and
• all activities are held in the same venue.

These events can be organized as to the competition amongst the cities and especially based on the habits. Besides, they contribute to development of tourism, strengthening solidarity amongst people and increasing the peace and love in the community. Because the festivals are special events, they can be considered within the events tourism.