Every Weekend A Festival! Urban impact of the festivalization of the daily life in Europe

1
Every Weekend A Festival!Urban impact of the
festivalization of the daily life in Europe

• Dr Dragan Klaic
• Leiden University
• Time-Space Dynamics in Urban Settings
• Third Annual Conference of the Transatlantic
  Graduate Research Program
• Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical
  University Berlin, 25 May 2007
• (c) D. Klaic 2007

2
Causes of festivals growth

• artistic mobility
• internationalization of artistic practices
• structural restraints of cultural institutions
• marketing and fundraising efficiency
• competition among the cities, destination
  marketing
• tourism boost expected economic benefits
• MUCH HAPPENS LITTLE RESEARCH!
• ARE FESTIVALS EMBLEMATIC FOR CULTURAL PRODUCTION
  DISTRIBUTION?
• Klaic TU Berlin 2

3
European Festival Research Project

• supported by the ECF, EFA, ACE and festivals
• a consortium and a growing network
• a research and reflection platform
• a series of events workshops, panels,
  seminars...
• introducing festival issues in the academic
  curricula
• a book on festival politics, governance
  programming and other publications
• a publicly accessible repository of research
  http//www.efa-aef.org/efahome/efrp.cfm
• CONTACT draganklaic_at_gmail.com
• Klaic TU Berlin 3

4
3 kinds of festivals

• community self-celebrations
• commercial crowd-gathering events
• artistic festivals
• - specific discipline - geographic accent
• - multidisciplinary - monographic
• - interdisciplinary - commemorative
• specific issues music, performing arts,
  literature, film labels niches
• common issues politic, governance,
  programming, management, funding, context,
  impact, continuity, sustainability... Klaic
  TU Berlin 4

5
Formula shifts

• social agenda, intellectual framing
• (feminist, gay, migration, globalization,
  ecology, philosophy, science)
• new media
• urbanity, urban context Purpose
• - compensatory -
  manifestative - developmental, exploratory
• Klaic TU Berlin 5

6
Festivals impact

• Artistic innovation, affirmation, reappraisal
• Cultural educational various age groups,
  people institutions
• Social social cohesion, inclusiveness,
  interaction, remapping of the city
• Political distinction, civic pride, identity
• Economic jobs, expenditure, area
  revitalization
• Klaic TU Berlin 6

7
Spatial organization

• Venue centered /ambiental
• - nature celebratory, exploratory, invasive,
  restorative
• - post-industrial space art defeats
  technology
• - historic monument cultural memory
• - open urban space suspending,
  transformative
• Topography
• - urban / rural structures of sociability
• - urban center /periphery political choice
• focused or dispersed one or many locations
  programming volume, logistic
• Klaic TU Berlin 7

8
Urban effects

• A-centric focus? remapping the city
• foreground, highlight what marginal
• engaging, empowering specific groups
• Site-inspired, site-specific events
• - exceptional appropriation improvisation
• - repeated use adaptation
• - continued use conversion, recycling
• - area impact gentrification
• Klaic TU Berlin 8

9
Impact on the local cultural constellation

• Artistic profiling
• audience development
• educational outreach activities
• continuous training of the professionals
• professional/public reflection and debate
• media spin-offs
• local alliances and partnerships
• enhancing cooperative mentality competitors
  become partners
• experimenting with local/global dialectic Klaic
  TU Berlin 9

10
Why do festivals matter?

• High profile events? less visible processes
• artistic innovation and vitality
• inclusion, spatial desegregation, new audiences,
  new places, new partners
• intercultural dialogue, intercultural competence
• quality of urban life, cultural democracy
• European citizenship?
• Klaic TU Berlin 10

11
Festival pathology

• wild growth, imitative formulae, more of the same
• routine, programming fads
• festivals ? seasons
• audiences saturated
• one-shot festivals marketing and fundraising
  pragmatism
• forensic de-funded, disbanded, transformed
• public authorities festival policy
  (expectations, objectives, criteria, monitoring,
  evaluation)
• (c) D. Klaic 2007