Resumo: The article presents and discusses the insights of the residents of Canela, located in the south of Brazil, regarding the Christmas Dream festival [Sonho de Natal] and tourism. A questionnaire with open and closed questions was applied to 96 people [tourists and local residents] in 2014 and 2015-2016. The study selected responses to open questions to determine how the city and the event are understood. The answers allow the terms 'City', 'Tourist Town' and 'Event Town' to be used as analytical indicators. The method used to analyse the responses was Collective Subject Discourse, which sums up the insights of the local people in each town of Canela. The results indicate a division between Tourist City and Event City, which overlap what could be considered as the 'real' city.
