Festivalization; the boom in events

2014

"The Festivalisation of Culture explores the links between various local and global cultures, communities, identities and lifestyle narratives as they are both constructed and experienced in the festival context. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from Australia and Europe, festivals are examined as sites for the performance and critique of lifestyle, identity & cultural politics; as vehicles for the mobilization and cementation of local and global communities; and as spatio-temporal events that inspire and determine meaning in peoples' lives. Investigating the manner in which festivals are no longer merely periodic, cultural, religious or historical events within communities, but rather a popular means through which citizens consume and experience culture, this book also sheds light on the increasing diversity of contemporary societies and the role played by festivals as sites of cohesion, cultural critique and social mobility. As such, this book will be of interest to those working in areas such as the sociology, consumption and commodification of culture, social and cultural geography, anthropology, cultural studies and popular music studies. "

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF FESTIVALS

In recent times, festivals around the world have grown in number due to the increased recognition of their importance for tourism, branding and economic development. Festivals hold multifaceted roles in society and can be staged to bring positive economic impact, for the competitive advantage they lend a destination or to address social objectives. Studies on festivals have appeared in a wide range of disciplines, and consequently, much of the research available is highly fragmented. This handbook brings this knowledge together in one volume, o ering a comprehensive evaluation of the most current research, debates and controversies surrounding festivals. It is divided into nine sections that cover a wide range of theories, concepts and contexts, such as sustainability, festival marketing and management, the strategic use of festivals and their future. Featuring a variety of disciplinary, cultural and national perspectives from an international team of authors, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers of event management and will be of interest to scholars in the elds of anthropology, sociology, geography, marketing, management, psychology and economics.

2002

European Urban and Regional Studies, 2011

On a global market, cities aim to develop a distinct profile to attract mobile consumers. One increasingly used means to attain distinction is to brand the city as experience space. Particularly, the urban festival has become a popular organizational form for creating experience spaces, and for marketing cities. Festivals are often strategically conceived with the purpose of promoting a 'distinctive city', in line with uniqueness being the keystone of success in the experience economy. This paper applies an experience economy framework to analyse city festivals as potentially transformative practices, helping reimagine urban space and reshape urban identity. Building on empirical studies of Stockholm Culture Festival and the Nowy Kercelak Fair in Warsaw, it examines the tension between controlled image production and carnivalesque celebration and the extent to which the meanings and flow of urban space can be managed. Using Lefèbvre's notion of the production of space and Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of de-and reterritorialization, this paper critically assesses the possibility of reshaping urban practices through the staging of festivals, and the potential for creativity and expression extant in managed staging of experience.

Events and festivals have become increasingly important policy tools for cities and regions. They are able to produce a wide range of externalities, including economic impacts, image change, social capital and cultural regeneration. All of these event-related externalities have impacts and effects on the places in which they are staged. In many cases, these event-related impacts are analysed separately, but in fact the most powerful effects of events are more holistic, able to impact not just on individual economic sectors or social groups, but on places as a whole. Over time, the use of events by cities and regions has grown more sophisticated and complex. The range of policy goals for which events are utilised has expanded, and the range and type of events staged has increased as well. Increasingly, public administrations seek to coordinate the events in their jurisdiction to create synergies between events and to maximise the benefits generated. Event policies make frequent references to the development of programmes or " portfolios " of events (Antchak, 2016). The ability of events to effect a broad range of changes in different places has added to their attractiveness as a placemaking tool, and has led to more cities developing " events units " and other forms of event-based placemaking.

2014

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2013

Purpose -This paper introduces the eight articles on festival and events research in this special issue of IJCTHR.

Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture: 7(1): 1–14., 2015

Tourism Management

Festivals, once local celebrations of culture and heritage, can become international events spreading to countries outside their region of origin. However, the processes by which such festivals have become international have largely been ignored in existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to present an illustration of the festival internationalization process based on a case study of Trinidad and Tobago (TT) style carnivals. Using a combination of archival and interview data, the paper first identifies the international origins and evolution of festival elements. It then examines the outward trajectory of development from an event on a small Caribbean island to a major feature of cities in North America and Europe. The findings are synthesized to create a framework describing festival internationalization that draws on research in cultural production systems. It proposes that the TT Carnival can be viewed as an experience production system that provides an infrastructure fo...

Organization Studies, 2017

The present essay examines the festival as a form of organizing and as a metaphor for contemporary organizations. Drawing upon classical and contemporary perspectives on festival, we focus on social ambivalences and how these are enacted and mediated through festivals. Specifically, we argue that festivals mark a tension between linear and cyclical dimensions of social time. Next, we argue that formal institutional and communitarian principles are mediated through festival. Finally, we argue that festivals mark a tension between reflexivity and social critique on the one hand and mass spectacle on the other, and problematize the notion of bodily enjoyment as a form of social consciousness. We discuss the implications of these three ambivalences – in the notion of time, the notion of community and the notion of reflexivity – for contributing to contemporary organizational discussions.