Event Volunteering From Motivation to Legacies

Event volunteers support a diverse array of events, ranging from major sporting events to cultural festivals, often ensuring their viability and success. This article introduces Event Management's curated collection on event volunteering, tracking the development of research in the journal from 1995 to 2023. Four dominant themes are discussed, each illustrated by two or three selected articles. First, the motivations of event volunteers; second, event volunteering experiences; third, approaches to managing event volunteers; and fourth, the legacies of event volunteering. The article concludes with observations on the body of knowledge represented by the 56 volunteering articles, identifying gaps in geographic representation, event diversity, methodological approaches, and theoretical frameworks.