Standards Development

Scope

This document provides guidance on the application of ISO 22379:2022, Security and resilience

— Guidelines for hosting and organizing citywide or regional events, to the specific context of traditional festivals. This document identifies the clauses of ISO 22379 that are most applicable to traditional festivals and provides interpretation, adaptation, and supplementary recommendations tailored to the traditional festival scenario. The guidance covers the complete lifecycle of a traditional festival, including planning, operations, and post-event evaluation.

This document focuses on (but is not limited to) the following aspects:

— safety and security management (ISO 22379, Clause 4.5);

— crowd and transport management;

— coordination with public authorities (in accordance with applicable national and local laws and regulations);

— protection of intangible cultural heritage and traditional practices;

— community participation and volunteer management;

— communication and information support.

This document does not cover:

— detailed technical specifications for venues, equipment, or facilities;

— certification, accreditation, or conformity assessment requirements;

— matters exclusively governed by national and local laws and regulations (such laws and regulations take precedence).

Subsequent parts of the ISO 354 series may provide detailed guidance on specific topics such as accessible participation, digital tools, environmental sustainability, and crisis management for traditional festivals.

Purpose

Traditional festivals, as intangible cultural heritage, face three global challenges: cultural transmission, crowd safety, and community engagement. Against the backdrop of globalization, issues such as cultural dilution, intergenerational transmission rupture, and weakening of community agency have further exacerbated these challenges. Since 2010, large-scale festive events in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa have witnessed multiple serious crowd-related safety incidents, reflecting a global absence of safety and resilience management guidelines specifically adapted to crowd-intensive traditional festival scenarios. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted by UNESCO explicitly includes "social practices, rituals, and festive events" within the scope of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding. As of June 2025, the Convention has 185 States Parties, all of which bear the international obligation to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, including traditional festivals.

ISO 22379 provides a generic and strategic event management framework for citywide or regional events. However, it does not offer detailed provisions for the cultural specificities, community-based organization models, and heritage protection requirements unique to traditional festivals. Existing standards like ISO 20121 (sustainability) or ISO 26000 (social responsibility) address adjacent but distinct aspects, lacking a focus on the core values of cultural authenticity and intergenerational transmission.

This proposed standard will serve as a sector-specific application guide, filling the operational gap from the generic framework of ISO 22379 to the specific practices of traditional festivals. It will embed intangible cultural heritage protection principles into the festival management life cycle, moving from "protection principles" to "on-site management." It will provide event hosts and organizers with a systematic safety management tool, enabling experience to be passed on and risks to be controlled. For participants, it delivers predictable safety assurance and authentic cultural experiences. For international organizations like UNESCO, it fills the operational gap in the ICH Convention from "protection principles" to "on-site management," turning global consensus into global practice. The development of ISO/TC 354 provides a strategic platform for this proposal. This project will be one of the first specialized application guidance documents under TC 354, establishing a milestone for the standardization of "culturally purposeful events." It aligns with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 11.4 (Protect cultural and natural heritage), SDG 8.9 (Sustainable tourism), and SDG 3 (Good health and well-being). The proposal integrates practical experience and theoretical frameworks (e.g., "cultural genes," "whole-process living practice") developed from managing diverse traditional festivals in China, offering a robust technical foundation for an international standard.