The paper analyzes the broad history underpinning the concept of sustainable development and its context within the events industry and specifically with regards to the South African National Arts Festival. A pilot contingent valuation study conducted at the 2010 National Arts Festival determined that the average visitor was willing to pay an extra ZAR 2.30 (approximately US$ 0.30) per ticket for a recycling programme to be established to process the waste generated by the event. While the paper concluded that the theoretical basis of the study was sound, a larger sample size would have been preferred so as to enhance the model‘s predictive power
