Carnivals for elites? The cultural politics of arts festivals

International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2013

Arts festivals have been on the ascendant since the 1980s. However, while these are proliferating, it remains unclear as to whether they are also flourishing. The present narrow construction of festivals for marketing and economic purposes tends to disregard the festivals’ social and cultural potential, i.e. in terms of functioning as urban laboratories where new and alternative urban and cultural strategies can be tested and developed. In order to address these imbalanced conceptualizations of arts festivals within urban policy frameworks, the article is based on a comparative case study of festivals that try to function as urban laboratories. By examining how these festivals are integrated in or marginalized by the urban regime, and how this influences their operational conditions, the research elucidates the need to create new and more holistic policy frameworks to chart an equitable path for the future development of arts festivals.

2011

Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere provides the first major social-scientific study of contemporary arts festivals in the wake of their explosion in popularity over the past decade. It explores the cultural significance of these festivals from their location within the cultural public sphere, examining them as sites for contestation and democratic debate and also identifying them as examples of a particular aesthetic cosmopolitanism.

One of the interesting things about arts festivals is that many of the activities that occur as part and parcel of them can be mapped onto existing categories of copyright works. Indeed, so powerful is the rhetoric of these categories that there is a question about the extent to which they have constituted the very idea of “arts” in this context – so that festivals typically identify themselves as film festivals, musical festivals, theatre festivals and so on, even if in fact empirical research reveals that almost no festivals confine themselves to only one form of “artistic” output. It would, therefore, be tempting (and much easier) to treat festivals as being just like any other form of distribution of copyright protected works. However, limiting our understanding of festivals to being merely another means of distribution is really limiting our understanding of the nature of arts festivals and their social, political and economic significance. While it is undoubtedly true that arts festivals, particularly some arts festivals, produce economic value for the entertainment industries, they also encompass a range of other values that are less easily measured but nevertheless present. In this chapter, it is argued that arts festivals should be recognized as a form of cultural heritage. If this case can be made out, then it presents us with a problem. This is that the public and communal values of arts festivals as forms of cultural heritage appear to be in potential conflict with the intellectual property rights that appear to also be a feature of the arts festival environment.

Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, 2011

The growth in arts festivals that has taken place since the 1990s has changed the structure of the cultural market place. Based on interviews and discussions with festival directors and arts producers, participant observation as a producer and audience member, primarily in the UK, together with examples from the literature, this paper explores the question of whether festival aesthetics and the particularities of festival production and exhibition are changing the nature of the work that is being produced in response to festivalisation. It identifies a number of dimensions of the festival experience, commissioning, spectacularisation, thematic programming, immersion and participation, that are increasingly prevalent in the performing and visual arts being produced for non-festival settings. This festivalisation of culture poses new challenges and offers different opportunities to artists, producers and audiences to make innovative kinds of work that wouldn't have been possible within the hitherto standard production models.

Event Management, 2008

The V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first large-scale outdoor rock and pop music festival in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury and Reading Festivals, it struggled to create a distinctive identity or gain critical acceptance, especially among the more radical or countercultural of festival-goers and press. Managed by a consortium of highly successful concert promoters, it actively embraces commercialism, sponsorship deals, and a forward-thinking ethos of quality and customer service. However, rather than escaping the countercultural and carnivalseque imagery and meanings historically associated with outdoor rock and pop music festivals it has, to varying degrees, commodified, modernized, or subverted them. In the process, it has gained considerable popularity among festival-goers and secured the plaudits of music industry professionals. The event is at the forefront of initiatives regarding festival policing and safety, and offers a role model for the many new commercial events that are established each year. This article considers how the concept of the countercultural carnivalesque has been used in relation to large-scale outdoor music festivals, before examining the V Festival through a cultural economic focus. It demonstrates how the beliefs and backgrounds of its organizers have influenced the management and image of the event, and how it has helped to transform the large-scale outdoor music festival market more generally.

There has been a remarkable rise in the number of urban arts festivals in recent decades. The outcomes of cities' engagement with arts festivals, however, remain little understood, particularly in social and cultural terms. This article reviews existing literature on urban festivals and argues that city authorities tend to disregard the social value of festivals and to construe them simply as vehicles of economic generation or as 'quick fix' solutions to city image problems. While such an approach renders certain benefits, it is ultimately quite limiting. If arts festivals are to achieve their undoubted potential in animating communities, celebrating diversity and improving quality of life, then they must be conceived of in a more holistic way by urban managers. Currently, the tasks of conceptualising the problems at issue and devising appropriate policies are hampered by the scarcity of empirical research conducted in the area.

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. "