Abstract. The initial results obtained during the first year of the project «Volgograd Festivals of Arts: Cultural and Social Research (needs, values, motivations, experience, social and cultural role)» are proposed in article. The role of festivals of arts is analyzed in socio-cultural and anthropological context on the basis of data from expert and focus group interviews: how the subjects of the cultural process treat the Volgograd festivals; how the Volgograd residents’ interpretations of festival process are correlated with their views about cultural urban environment; what are the motives and needs of festival initiators and audience which define their cultural creativity and consumption. Some festival models are identified; conclusions about personality’s role in their initiation and functions and about their relation with the urban socio-cultural environment are made.