Changing festival places: insights from Galway

Abstract

This paper focuses on cultural reproduction in arts festival settings. It begins by conceptualizing festival settings as places whose characters derive from a combination of both internally derived traits and a diverse series of interactions with other places. Drawing on case study research conducted in an arts festival setting in Galway in the Republic of Ireland, the discussion identifies how elements indigenous to the place connect and engage with external forces. The study found the process of interacting with other places to be complex, involving much negotiation and adaptation as locales became contexts for re-working an array of often conflicting ideals and influences. The paper concludes that while inevitable difficulties are faced as festivals negotiate the potentially standardizing forces of homogenization, it is only through continuous interaction with other places that local contexts realize their full potential.

Keywords:

• arts festivals
• place
• agency
• negotiation
• Republic of Ireland

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks are extended to Anne Buttimer and to Stanley Waterman.