World Gymnaestrada: reasons to join a massive gymnastics festival

Abstract

Background: The Mass Participation Sporting Events (MPSE) have multiplied throughout the 20th century, consolidating themselves as an important socio-cultural phenomenon in the contemporary society. In this sense, the gymnastics festivals have been an integral part of the gymnastics community since the last two decades of the 19th century and even currently represent a prominent venue for promoting sports participation. Purpose: This study analyses participants’ motivation to join the XVI World Gymnaestrada (WG) held in Dornbirn (Austria) in 2019, one of the most important international non-competitive gymnastics festivals. Materials and methods: Using a quantitative approach, the Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire (GCEQ) was applied to 1024 participants (813 females and 211 males), aged 18 to 85 years, and statistically analysed using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Gender, age group, and amount of WG participation were treated as between-subject factors, while the GCEQ factors (Social Affiliation, Image, Health Management, Social Recognition, and Skill Development) were used as dependent variables. Results: Social Affiliation is the most important motivational factor, followed by Skill Development and Health Management. Motivational factors varied according to the age group and the number of participations in the WG. Conclusions: The most relevant motivational factors for participating in this event are intrinsic factors, which corroborates WG's non-competitive nature and reveals different interests to join this gymnastics festival. In addition, more frequent WG participation increases the importance of Social Affiliation. These data reveal the importance of non-competitive sporting events and long-term participation, especially for fostering social relationships between participants.