Sustainability in great events: greenwashing or reality? Analysis of the case study Jova Beach Party and of the social, economical and environmental impacts of the zero-date in Lignano Sabbiadoro

The events to be defined “sustainable” must follow some straight rules, in particular the ones of the international standard ISO 20121. The great events, as the one analysed in this paper, are hardly able to respect the principles of environmental, economic, and social sustainability, because usually imply huge investments, hundred thousand of participants, a great quantity of GHGs emissions in the air and the total involvement of the territories which host them. In this sense, the national summer tour of the Italian artist Lorenzo Cherubini, aka Jovanotti, which took place both in 2019 and in 2022, was an interesting case study because of two reasons: the communication was fully centred on the environmental sustainability and the plastic pollution; the tour was organized in different seaside resorts along the Italian coastline, and so, in fragile natural ecosystems. Due to the incredible number of spectators (more than 600.000) the huge amount of data and information connected to the national tour, it was decided to analyse only the impacts that the event had on the territory of the city which hosted the first date of the tour, both in 2019 and in 2022, i.e., Lignano Sabbiadoro. In particular, the Telco data and the geocoded information that can be obtained from them, were useful to understand the impact on the tourism flows: if increases or decreases have been recorded, the origins of the participants (provinces for Italians, countries for Europa and intercontinental) , the age groups most attracted by this event, etc. From the results obtained it’s almost clear that an event of this dimensions if well managed could reduce its impacts, especially from an environmental point of view, but it has to choose a location more suitable for this kind of event, surely not beaches much better stadiums.