The article examines how parkour training is constructed and transmitted amongst localised peer groups known as 'traceurs'. It concentrates on training practices that develop as a result of peer interaction in open, public spaces rather than formal training sessions that take place within a gym or as part of a regulated coaching programme. Drawing on extended interview material from a range of parkour practitioners with varying levels of experience and expertise, the article investigates the traceur's perspective on group training and how this relates to cognition and processes of learning. Using traceurs' own reflections the research will identify how physical obstacles, mental challenges, fear and risk are handled through repeated actions that then result in deeply embedded somatic responses to the built environment. The repertoire of moves that is shared between traceurs offers a patterned way of learning that, in turn, provides a route to embodied knowing. The research demonstrates how group training sessions in parkour can be conceived as collaborative learning and how that relates to theories of social learning (Bandura 1977, Lave 2009, Wenger 1998. The article argues that the efficacy of play as an approach to training provides a vehicle for active learning that chimes with the utilitarian aspect of parkour practice where to know and overcome obstacles represents the knowing and attainment of freedom.

This article explores some of the challenges of conducting research associated with play within the context of EDMCs, with particular reference to the complex social and spatial dynamics of popular music festivals. The essential premise is that clubbing can be conceived as a form of play and, as such, can offer access to the experience of flow. The article considers the epistemological complexities of the researcher's own immersion within the play event and adopts practice-based research methodologies developed in performance studies as a way of acknowledging and critiquing the significance of felt experiences and embodied knowledge. It considers the practical and ethical challenges of researching a phenomenon where intrusion is not only inconvenient and impractical but effectively collapses and destroys the very object of attention. The article introduces the concept of autoethnographic flow and argues that, whilst such immersion is often viewed with suspicion by other disciplines, it is particularly pertinent to EDMC scholarship as the research stance offered here intentionally embeds the researcher within the research context and uses this positioning as a key element of research design.

Popular music festivals are convivial spaces where paradigms of play and participation proliferate. 'Exploring radical openness' investigates the concept of relational performance where encounter and dynamic exchange are prioritized. Drawing on extensive practice-led research conducted predominantly within the UK festival circuit, it provides a model for interactivity that not only acknowledges the inherent unpredictability of festival sites but also exploits it in the pursuit of inclusivity and radical openness.

This article examines the interrelated concepts of space, play and performativity in relation to the underground club scene in the UK. Grounded in the discipline of performance studies, this article uses the lens of play to identify how the spatial characteristics of underground dance culture provide a fertile terrain for performative acts of collectivity and expression. Resonating with previous EDMC scholarship that invokes concepts of liminality and the social dimensions of "spontaneous communitas", the physical and psychical dimensions of play will be considered. Applying Turner's work on subjunctivity (1982) and Jill Dolan's concept of "utopian performatives" (2005) in relation to the psytrance scene, the article positions the underground party as a playful arena, a spatial construct that offers a context for moments of individual and collective transformation that are expressed and experienced performatively.

This article outlines the activities of the research network 'Festival Performance as a State of Encounter', which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the Beyond Text strategic programme. The network was formulated in 2008, and a range of different events were organized over the course of two years to explore the concept of relational performance within the context of popular music festivals. One of the central aims of the network was to bring into dialogue scholars from a range of disciplines within the performing arts and creative industries and industry professionals and practitioners working on the festival circuit. The network provided a meeting place for industry-academy collaboration that prompted genuine exchange and knowledge transfer across sectors and challenged assumptions about the role and value of expertise and experience in relation to research processes. The article examines the notion of encounter and co-creation not only as a method of practice in festival performance but also as a methodology for facilitating fruitful conversation and dynamic interaction between stakeholders with a shared interest in understanding the deep impact of embodied participation in festival spaces.