The Place to be... global, The glocal configuration of world festivals, The case of Les Eurockéennes de Belfort, France

The simple aim throughout this book is to ask questions of world festivals, as evidenced in recent advances in research about festivals. The ‘festivalisation of culture’ (Négrier, 2015) approach has seen an expansion in both qualitative and quantitative research in recent years. A few years ago, the research on festivals was going in three directions: a monographic approach (Autissier, 2008); an approach dominated by economic issues, management (Maughan and Bianchini, 2004; Bonet and Schargorodsky, 2012) or tourist attractiveness (Anderson and Getz, 2009); and an approach considering the festivals as peripheral, or exceptional, items of cultural policies. More recently, new opportunities emerged with the crossing of these three approaches with more artistic or aesthetic issues, as we can see in Focus on Festivals (Newbold et al, 2015). At the same time, the interest in the multi-dimensional nature of festivals opens up new questions about the relationship between festivals and public space (Giorgi et al, 2011). The identification of a world category of festival is both logical and paradoxical. It is logical, because, by their history, festivals, more than other cultural enterprises, were the levers for artistic exchange beyond national borders and beyond daily life (Falassi, 1987). Rather than the local and national institutions permanently installed in cities and artistic seasons, the programming of festival is still a powerful tool for the circulation of artists, for sharing tastes, and for cooperation between actors. The global nature of festivals is a substantial element of their dynamics, even if not all of them have the same degree of international openness. That’s why festivals seem to be not only in perfect harmony with the contemporary anthropological moment, but also a response to several ongoing issues of cultural policies: cultural democratisation (Négrier et al, 2010), the legitimisation of local authorities (Watermann, 1998), the transformation of artistic genres (Dowd et al, 2004), cultural diversity or European identity (Maggauda and Solaroli, 2011) or, more generally, territorial identity. The development of mega-events, as a new strategy of distinction for towns and cities, has become a particular research topic (Gold and Gold, 2005; Quinn, 2005; Van Aalst and Van Melik, 2012), not without a causing a critical current (Rojek, 2013). However the world category of festivals can also be paradoxical. Indeed, alongside the considerable growth of these events, the balance of studies about many of them shows how each festival has a singular story, and is always singularly local. Here we have the opportunity to illustrate this from the perspective of a particular event, the Eurockéennes de Belfort. But on this point, the example is widely generalisable. The research discussed in this chapter is based on a dual survey conducted four years apart (2010 and 2014), using the same quantitative and qualitative methods. It is part of a research programme about festivals that began, in France then in Europe, in 2006.

Commemorating the Ancestors, Performances of Death at the Tucson All Souls Procession

At dusk close to 100,000 people clad in black and white face paint and hand-made costumes emerge from all directions marching along a two-mile procession route from Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona to the finale site carrying puppets, banners, effigies, floats and posters with photographs of the dead of all shapes and sizes. Crowds of people line the streets; however unlike the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade and other official processions, there are no street barriers separating those marching in the procession and those observing; the lines are porous and blurred. Participants move fluidly in and out of the procession between spectating and marching: dancing, drumming and walking. There is no clear distinction between sidewalk and street; between official performers and spectators—everyone is a participant. There is a somber sense of excitement and anticipation. A large-scale sculptural urn assisted by guardians from the performance troupe Flam Chen weaves through the dense crowd collecting hand-written prayers and offerings from passersby. Day of the Dead motifs of black and white skeletons, flowers, and masks dominate the visual landscape mixed with a fusion of hybrid imagery that evokes death, memory and celebration. Suspended weightlessly above a crowd of fire-lit faces, a figure moves gracefully without a safety net, wrapping her body in aerial silks tethered to helium balloon clusters. Stilted figures in ornate hand-constructed costumes twirl fire to the thundering beating drum. Costumed figures scale the metal tower with torches to light the large paper mache urn, which is filled with the prayers of the entire community. Flames lick up the sides of the urn transforming it into a ball of raging fire; the crowd cheers as they watch their prayers ascend into the darkness. This ritual burning of the urn signifies the culminating act of the Tucson All Souls’ Procession. Flam Chen, pyrotechnic performance troupe from Tucson and Many Mouths One Stomach, the organizers of the event, stage a fire aerial performance followed by the symbolic burning of the urn filled with the community’s prayers and wishes.

The Parkes Elvis Festival, Attendee and Host Community Perspectives

Each year, up to 20,000 people descend upon the rural town of Parkes, 365km west of Sydney, to attend the Parkes Elvis Festival. Initiated in 1993 by a group of locals who were Elvis Presley fans, the annual festival has grown from the humble beginnings of a one-day event with a few hundred attendees to a five day festival. In a bid to assist the festival organisers to understand the impacts of the Parkes Elvis Festival on both attendees and the host community, researchers designed a set of survey instruments to deliver a comprehensive evaluation of the social and economic impacts of the festival. Research was carried out in 2010 and separate surveys were conducted for festival organisers, attendees and local residents. After a brief explanation of the festival, and the man it is inspired by, this chapter explores the methods used to collect data before outlining the results. The results are divided into two key sections, attendees’ perceptions, and host community perceptions. First we profile the demographics, motivations and experience of festival attendees. Second, we profile the perceptions of the host community with respect to both the economic and social impacts of the festival. The surveys demonstrate the overwhelming goodwill and enthusiasm for the festival, by both the host community and attendees. Results show that the festival attracts a mix of first time and repeat visitors, and that many of the returning attendees do so to catch up with friends made at previous festivals. For residents, regardless of whether they attend or not, the large majority understand the economic, tourism and community benefits generated by the festival.

Large Festivals – Great Struggles

Contemporary music festivals in late modern European culture have different histories, focuses, missions and geographical conditions. This chapter calls for deeper analysis of the development of festivals that is rooted in cultural anthropology, sociology and the sciences – a multidisciplinary approach. Without this, festivals will simply be known as recurring celebrations, thematic ritual events reflecting the basic values and the worldview shared by the participants that are the basis of their social identity. However, nowadays, the economic importance of festivals has become even more rigorously evaluated, whilst complicated ways to measure cultural impact are often left out, even from detailed reports. Most studies emphasise the difference between Eastern and Western European festivals (Newbold et al. 2015), however, the life cycle of a festival is influenced by factors that are similar wherever they take place: marketing, promotions, sales, audience development and quality, improvement challenges etc. As the size of the festival market has grown, new questions are being asked about economic efficiency. In this study I will search for similarities in the development of five major Eastern and Western European festivals, namely Glastonbury Festival (United Kingdom), Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Sziget Festival (Hungary), Exit Festival (Serbia), and Woodstock Festival Poland (Poland). I will also analyse the Sziget Festival’s life cycle in detail in order to go deeper into the issues and discuss ways to further research music festivals.

Animating Places, A new festival phenomenon

From lighting town centres to ephemeral one-off events, from nights of cultural activity to small festivals, from year-long programmes to biennials and triennials, artists are engaging in a wide variety of activities that support the idea of place- making. Emerging from the practices of interventionist art, community engage- ment and installation, through the processes and debates of public artists we are now experiencing new models of artistic intervention in the public realm. They are, quite literally, animating places. Alongside larger profile-building activities such as the European Cities/Capitals of Culture, the past 20 years has seen a significant growth in place-based festivals and events, one-off large scale events and city-specific commissions that aim, in one way or another, to animate public spaces and strive towards the idea of place-making. Artists are leading on initialising street festivals; intervening with politically motivated ‘guerrilla’ tactics to enliven places, in opposition to stasis in public engagement, and in promoting and building festival activities – some overt oth- ers more covert. For some the focus is on social and cultural change, for others the intentions are more community orientated and celebratory. All contribute to a sense of place and engagement. This chapter considers the emergent patterns of major events and festivals along- side the need to market places in competition with each other; the phenomena of culturally-focused and culturally-led events that bring places alive; the issues affecting both the artists as producers and the commissioning bodies; and the impacts and engagement of audiences. Within this exploration this chapter will address the question of whether there are principles that can be applied to the area of animation. Building on the idea that the relationship between people and place is given particular poignancy through festival and cultural engagements, a triad of place, people and purpose is emerging as a prism through which to see artists engaging in public spaces and, by doing so, contributing to place-making. The chapter will explore specific models of working that embrace three core ideas over and above this triad – the notion of making places, questions of identity, and ownership and celebration.

A Holy Week Carnival, The Iberoamerican Theater Festival of Bogotá

This chapter explores the entangled relations of a contemporary and post- traditional festival with a much older festive substrate associated with Holy Week and Carnival. In this sense it is not intended as a systematic study of the Iberoamerican Theater Festival of Bogotá (ITFB), much less as a summary of its more than two decade long history. My more modest goal is to read this festival as a material and rhetorical dispositif arising in response to a social crisis (Castro Gómez, 2011), closely related to what I have called elsewhere regimes of festive alteration (Vignolo, 2015: 138-159): 1 The fiesta-bonanza, distinguished by excess and associated with human, territorial, and resource exploitation on the frontier of capitalist expansion (Braudel, 2002; Taussig, 1980: xii). 2 the fiesta-revolution, dominated by the trope of inversion and aiming to undermine the status quo, disrupt the social order, and scramble established dichotomies (Bakhtin, 1984; Eco, 1984). 3 The fiesta-passion, where the ritual sacrifice of a savior figure provides the community with a chance to separate from the conflicts that threaten its unity, through the trope of transfiguration. (Girard 1977; Esposito, 2003). Intertwined, superimposed, and interarticulated, they encompass practically all the festive events of the last 30 years in Colombia, it would be possible to trace their genealogy back to colonial times (Vignolo, 2015: 139).

‘Appealing for Grace’, The Guinea Corn Festival of the Nawuris of Northern Ghana

Festivals are recurrent celebrations and often with ritual events and meanings. Festivals reveal something of the identity, values and world views of the community or ethnic group that celebrates them (Szabó, 2015). Festive occasions involve local residents and visitors. In Ghana, there are several festivals celebrated by different ethnic groups. For example the people of Accra, the capital of Ghana, celebrate the Homowo festival, which is a festival that literally ‘hoots at hunger’. The festival was initiated following a bumper harvest after years of famine and hunger. The people of Akropong, Akwapim in the eastern region of Ghana celebrate the Odwira festival. It is a festival that enables the people to purify ancestral stools 2 and spiritually cleanse the towns and villages in and around Akropong. In the same way the people of Cape Coast also celebrate the Fetu Afahye festival, which is a multi-purpose festival that marks cleansing of the people of Cape Coast from a plague in pre-colonial times. The festival also celebrates an abundant harvest of fish from the sea and offers the opportunity for the people in the area to thank the seventy-seven deities of the Cape Coast for their protection over the years (Opoku 1970). The Ewe people of Anlo, in the Volta Region of Ghana, celebrate a festival called Hogbetsotso. It is a migration festival that tells the story of the escape of a group of Ewes from one of their tyrannical rulers, King Agokoli. The Dagomba people of the Northern Region celebrate the Bugum or fire festival. Local traditions provide two explanations for the festival. The first credits the origin of the festival to the Prophet Noah whose Ark docked on Mount Ararat. Local historians claim that after the floods the occupants of the Ark came out with torches to find their way out and around. The second version indicates that at a point in the history of the Dagomba people a king lost his son. The king assembled his warriors who composed a search party. They finally found the son in the night sleeping under a tree. Because they managed to find him using torches made from grass, the king decreed that every year the event should be celebrated with torches made from grass.

Festivals that Change Lives

There are countries in the world where ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ don’t have the same meaning as in our western European countries, especially in the street or in what is called ‘public space’. Even so, in some of these countries, street art festivals exist and they can change the life of the artists and of the population. Jürgen Habermas, in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962), has defined this term. According to him, the bourgeois public sphere (which appeared in the 18th century) is the place between private individuals and government authorities in which people can meet and have critical debates about public matters. Whether debates are about culture, habits or law, in the countries discussed in this chapter (Iran, Belarus, Morocco and Kuwait), this barely happens. Critical debate is forbidden or simply inconceivable.

Dia de los Muertos and its Representation of Calaveras

The word death is not pronounced in New York, Paris or London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, by contrast, is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it... it is one of his most favourite toys and his most steadfast love. True, there is perhaps as much fear in his attitude as in that of others, but at least death is not hidden away... (Paz, 1967, in Sayer, 2009: 105) While every country has its own festivals and celebrations, each deeply rooted in the country’s culture, none does so more vibrantly than Mexico’s festival of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which dates back to the Aztec belief in life as part of the wider cycle of existence (Weiss, 2010). Celebrated on All Saints’ and All Souls’ days at the start of November, Mexico’s festival is significantly different from other countries’ celebrations, such as the perhaps more familiar Westernised, secular celebration of Halloween. Although festivities vary from region to region across Mexico, it seems that remembrance remains central to the festival, during which the living “honour the souls of the departed with gifts of food and flowers” (Sayer, 2009: 12). Far from being a sombre affair, Dia de los Muertos is a time for celebration mixing Spanish Catholic traditions with ancient Aztec rituals, it is “quite the reverse of morbid; it is a period full of life, colour and festival” (Carmichael and Sayer, 1991: 7). By contrast, Western Catholic countries continue to honour more traditional practice of All Saints’ Day, a national holiday in many Catholic countries, including Spain, where Todos los Santos remains as one of the country’s most celebrated religious festivals and All Souls’ Day, on which ancient customs of decorating graves and praying for the dead are still observed (Catholic Culture, 2015).

Visual Arts Festivals and Globalisation, The rise of biennials

Biennials or biennales are periodic, independent and international art exhibitions surveying trends in contemporary art; since the 1990s they have proliferated across the globe. Biennials are much more than curated displays, they constitute ‘festival-exhibitions’ working as “a public model and a shifting backdrop against which the meanings of contemporary art are constructed, maintained and sometimes irrevocably altered” (Ferguson et al., 2005: 48). Whilst most contemporary post-traditional festivals (Giorgi and Sassatelli, 2011) have ancient roots, it is only in recent years that they have become an almost ubiquitous fixture of cultural calendars in cities around the world. This current proliferation is even more striking for art biennials. They arguably originate from the Venice Biennale, held for the first time in 1895, but have long exceeded their European, Western origin to establish a global format. Up to the 1980s they were only reproduced in a handful of examples; today biennials and derivates (triennials and others) have become key institutional nodes linking production, consumption and distribution of contemporary art. With now over 150 biennials around the world, we are increasingly likely to encounter contemporary art through their mediation, directly as visitors or more indirectly via the nebula of critical discourse and more generally the media coverage they generate. The phenomenon attracting attention has become not just the biennials but more specifically the biennalisation of the art world. The term biennalisation is used within the art world itself as shorthand to refer to the proliferation and standardisation of biennial exhibitions under a common (if rather loose) format. Sociologically, biennalisation can thematise the shifting set of cultural classifications, practices and values that differentiate the contemporary art world, affecting both its content (now sometimes referred to as biennial art) and the type of rationale and experience it crystallises. As phenomena that increasingly represent themself “on a global scale” (Vogel 2010), biennials offer a unique vantage point to access what is often termed ‘global culture’. However, they remain rarely empirically studied in clearly defined contexts, especially beyond affirmation or negations of their measurable impact (Buchholz and Wuggenig, 2005). Reprising within the art world unsolved dilemmas in the analysis of cultural globalisation, alleged optimists see in biennials the “embracing of a democratic redistribution of cultural power” (De Duve 2009: 45); whilst pessimists point rather to the “recognition of a new form of cultural hegemony and re-colonization” (2009: 45). This chapter traces the rise of the biennial, across time and space, providing contextualisation and interpretation for what are now often hyperbolic accounts of “hundreds of biennials” (Seijdel 2009: 4) across the globe.