Carnivals for elites? The cultural politics of arts festivals

Abstract

Despite their ubiquity and cultural prominence, academic study of arts festivals has been neglected. This article examines how cyclical arts festivals transform places from being everyday settings into temporary environments that contribute to the production, processing and consumption of culture, concentrated in time and place. Moreover, festivals also provide examples of how culture is contested. Support for the arts is part of a process used by élites to establish social distance between themselves and others. Festivals have traditionally been innovative and have always been controlled. In the past, artistic directors wielded this control but recent attempts by commercial interests to control festivals reflect a wider situation in which marketing agencies and managers are transforming arts and culture into arts and culture industries. Today, promoting arts festivals is related to place promotion, and this encourages ‘safe’ art forms. This highlights latent tensions between festival as art and economics, between culture and cultural politics.

Access—A Research Agenda for Edinburgh Festivals

“…Successful festivals create a powerful sense of place, which is local, as the festival takes place in a locality or region, but which often makes an appeal to a global culture in order to attract both participants and audiences (Waterman, 1998). In addition, festivals can be a medium for the local culture to reach a global audience.…”

“…In this way, it can be argued that the cultural impact of a festival can expand beyond the confines of its program and the work it features, to artistic expression elsewhere. However, it is not uncommon to hear festivals being described as "elitist" (Waterman, 1998) and by focusing on "high culture" excluding large segments of the local population. In fact, it has been argued that holding the event may reflect the desire of a small elite group to pursue its interests in the name of community development (Ritchie, 1984).…”

“…In the period immediately after World War II, festivals were used as an aid to reconstruction and economic regeneration (Harvie, 2003;Waterman, 1998). Garden festivals were held in early postwar Germany to encourage the regeneration of war damaged areas (Ward, 1998).…”

Festivals, Cooperative Stakeholders and the Role of the Media: A Case Analysis of Newspaper Media

“…It is suggested here that this discourse is symbiotic and one significant measure of a changing cultural milieu in which the meaning of festivalstheir purpose and affect -are contested (Crespi-Vallbona & Richards, 2007;Hede, 2007;Quinn, 2003;Richards, 2007). With the movement of people from urban to rural, or rural to urban (as had been the case in most Nordic countries) this contest may have increasing potency and given these dynamics may be viewed as a political manifestation and political communication (Ooi, 2004;Waterman, 1998).…”

Carnivalism and Engaging Journalism in the Current Affairs Podcasts in South Korea

“…Carnivals have long been associated with resistance in human society. A brief look at history shows us that early carnivals were spaces for the public to express dissent to the established order [33]. As Turner [34] said, a carnival is an "anti-structural" sphere, where dominant social relations are inverted or leveled.…”