Festival Spaces, Identity, Experience and Belonging

Abstract

In the current literature on festivals, significant emphasis is placed on the importance of the festival setting as a space for the articulation, performance and rediscovery of identity (Aitchison and Pritchard, 2007). According to some festival researchers, a pivotal quality of festivals in this respect is their liminality. As liminal spaces are removed from the more mundane process of everyday life, it is argued that festivals offer opportunities for experimentation with identity and the articulation of identity politics that may often be less feasible and acceptable – and in some cases socially circumscribed – in everyday settings. Thus, as Dowd, Liddle and Nelson (2004: 149) observe, ‘Drawn together from geographically dispersed locations and away from the expectations of everyday life, fans and performers can immerse themselves in a particular culture and experiment with different identities’.

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