Instagram Affordances and Audience Engagement in A Cultural Festival

A Case Study of the Golo Koe Festival in Labuan Bajo

Abstract

This study explores how Instagram affordances shape audience engagement with the Golo Koe Festival (FGK), a cultural and religious festival in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. Situated in a tourism destination undergoing rapid development, FGK brings together Manggarai cultural traditions and Catholic spirituality within the broader context of contemporary tourism. Using a descriptive qualitative case study approach, the research draws on interviews with six informants and content analysis of three Instagram Reels published by the festival’s official account during the pre-event period. The analysis examines audience experiences, content performance, cultural narratives, and forms of digital participation. The findings suggest that Instagram provides opportunities for audiences to encounter festival information, interpret cultural representations, express emotional responses, and participate in festival-related communication. Interview accounts illustrate how exposure to content shared by personal networks may stimulate further information-seeking and interest in attending, while practices such as Story sharing, reposting, tagging, and content collaboration provide opportunities for audience participation. The three Reels also show varying patterns of reach and interaction, although these descriptive metrics do not establish the causes of audience responses or directly measure cognitive and emotional engagement. Drawing on multidimensional engagement perspectives, the study offers a case-grounded conceptual synthesis of cognitive, emotional, and active engagement in a cultural festival context. The findings provide practical insights for festival organizers seeking to develop culturally meaningful and participatory digital communication strategies.