Managing event spaces and visitor experiences

Dark tourism festivals are events associated with the celebration of dark histories, the Gothic and the macabre. Events such as the Whitby Goth Weekend (UK) and the Dublin Bram Stoker Festival (Ireland) offer entertaining and engaging visitor experiences within dark cultural heritage spaces. In general, dark tourism sites and activities can be plotted along a continuum, ranging from ‘darkest’ to ‘lightest’, and the events discussed as part of this chapter can be located on the lighter end of the dark tourism spectrum. This research, based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews at two dark tourism festivals, focuses on how the events are spatially managed and organised. This chapter considers the events’ ability to foster liminal experiences for participants, affording them temporary escapes from everyday life. Participants seek immersive liminal experiences, but ‘festival dilution’ can disrupt intensity when too many activities compete for attention. This chapter explores the spatial design of dark events, management challenges and possible opportunities for these festivals within the dark events sector.