Authenticity-driven mechanisms of behavioural durability in festival experiences

Purpose Festival research documents intense experiential effects but continues to under-explain why such effects rarely translate into durable post-event behaviour. This study re-architects the causal logic of festival experience by theorising how multidimensional experiential configurations generate post-event value through layered authenticity, co-creation, and memory mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 463 attendees of a creative and heritage festival using an on-site and immediate post-event survey. The model was tested using PLS-SEM with higher-order formative constructs, two-stage estimation, bootstrapped mediation, sequential mediation, and moderated indirect effects. Findings Festival experience quality strongly activates authenticity perception and value co-creation behaviour, but behavioural outcomes are driven primarily by sequential mediation through authenticity and memorable festival experience rather than by direct experiential intensity. Value co-creation operates as a secondary amplification pathway. Visitor involvement strengthens, whereas perceived risk attenuates, indirect effects on satisfaction, loyalty intentions, and subjective well-being. Originality/value The study reconceptualises authenticity as a causal interpretive mechanism rather than a symbolic attribute, advances a configuration-based experiential logic, and explains why prior festival models systematically under-predicted behavioural durability by neglecting mechanism sequencing and conditional attenuation.