MAKING USE OF FESTIVALS AS A MEANS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE PROCESS OF CREATING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN CITIES: RESEARCH ON PARTICIPANTS IN ECOFEST ISTANBUL

Today environmental problems are rapidly increasing for many reasons such as the rapid population increase, unconscious consumption of natural resources, and intensive industrialization. Especially big cities appear places where environmental problems are the most intensively experienced. Against such a problem which concerns the world in many aspects, all those institutions which are based on sustainability today act with an understanding of social responsibility, organize public relations activities to enhance the levels of sensitivity and consciousness of the public on this matter or support the activities that are organized. Many means are used in public relations activities that are based on influencing the target mass and creating a change in attitudes and behaviors in the desired way and that are organized for these purposes. Festivals are also one of the important means that are used in public relations in terms of their ability to reach broad public masses. Festivals are influential events which draw attention to the region where they are organized and which are admiringly followed by different masses. The organization of a festival in a city depends on the joint work by many institutions such as the municipality, private establishments, and nongovernmental organizations. The main aim of this study is to investigate whether environment-themed festivals are successful means of public relations at the point of enhancing environmental consciousness through a questionnaire study performed for the participants in EcoFest Istanbul - the first international ecology festival of Turkey held in Istanbul on June 8-10, 2012.