Festivalisation of cultural production: experimentation, spectacularisation and immersion

Abstract

This paper reasons that the growth in arts festivals that has taken place since the 1990s has changed the nature of the cultural market and, consequently, is a major cause of the growth in the production of particular sorts of artworks that suit festival settings. 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 specific features of festival production and exhibition are changing the nature of the artwork produced in response to festivalisation. Three festival experience dimensions that are increasingly prevalent in the performing and visual arts are explored: experimentation, spectacularisation and immersion. It concludes that the festivalisation of cultural exhibition poses new management challenges and opportunities to produce innovative kinds of work that retain their aesthetic power.