Mapping Europe’s Cultural Pulse: A Bibliometric Analysis of Cultural Mega Events, Music Festivals, and the European Capitals of Culture (2000–2025)

Abstract Cultural and music mega events have emerged as the leading cultural expression, tourism promotion, and urban regeneration sites in the European scenario. From traditional festivals such as Glastonbury and Sziget to newer, larger events such as Tomorrowland and Untold, these events transgress the boundaries of entertainment and become articulations of cultural identity, collective memory, and the creative economy. Gaining ever-increasing importance, however, research on European cultural mega events exhibits a patchy profile, with the majority of studies investigating the economic or touristic dimensions at the expense of the cultural and symbolic ones. Given the strategic role these events play in cultural policy, creative economy development, and territorial branding across Europe, understanding the evolution and structure of the scholarly field becomes increasingly important. However, despite the growing relevance of these events, there is no comprehensive, up-to-date mapping of how academic knowledge on cultural mega events has developed, which countries and institutions lead research production, and which thematic domains dominate the field. Existing studies remain dispersed, with no bibliometric synthesis capturing 25 years of scholarship. Therefore, this research presents a bibliometric examination of papers on cultural and music mega events in Europe from 2000 to 2025. Data were gathered from the Web of Science Core Collection via a systematic search query and analyzed with VOSviewer. This investigation recognises influential authors, nations, organisations, and thematic concentrations that organise this research field. The results confirm that the research has increased consistently since 2010, and prominent concentrations revolve around cultural identity and place marketing, festival experience and community involvement, and creative industries and urban regeneration. This research adds to knowledge of how European cultural mega events feature in scholarly discourse and reveals research gaps related to Central and Eastern Europe.