Arts festivals as polysystems: a case analysis of Morocco music and film festivals

ABSTRACTIn today’s fluid culture, fluid economy and fluid tourism, arts festivals fulfil various and sometimes conflicting functions, but surprisingly little scholarly attention has been paid to this issue. The concern of this note is consequently to fill in this void by specifically providing, exploring and critically examining the multifaceted culture of festivalisation in the urban context. In so doing, the current study draws on two case studies namely Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World (MFRW) and Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF). Accordingly, while this research note brings into focus how the concept of polysystem is useful for understanding the complex interactions between different cultural systems, it also argues that a polysystemic approach can help shed light on the complex dynamic interactions between systems and subsystems; and identify the various actors and forces that shape the production and reception of cultural events in the urban milieu.KEYWORDS: FestivalisationMoroccan city eventscultural systemspolysystemic approachreception Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsYoussef Ait KerroumYoussef Ait Kerroum completed his PhD thesis on Festivalisation, Gender perception and Media Framing Within Moroccan City Events in 2022 from the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts, Ibn Tofail University (ITU), Kénitra, Morocco. The author’s academic interests span several topics within Cultural, Gender and Media Studies, English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics, and Freelance Translation. The author contributed varied papers in similar aspects to national and international journals and conferences. He got his MA in General Literature and Comparative Criticism from Mohamed V University, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Rabat, Morocco. Youssef Ait Kerroum currently holds the position of an assistant professor at ENS (École Normale Supérieure), Cadi Ayad University (CAU), Marrakech, Morocco.Khadija AnasseKhadija Anasse is a professor of Higher Education at the Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco. She is a driving force behind the success of the LIARIP research lab at the same faculty. She is the author of an interesting book entitled “A Study of Deverbial Nominals in Ayt Mzal Tashelhiyt- Tlataouanasse Region” (Rabat Net Publishing, Morocco, 2018). She has published in numerous journals and chaired national and international conferences. She directs PhD students and conducts many research projects from LIARIP research lab at ITU.