Festivalisation : Patterns and Limits

International audienceThe purpose of this paper is twofold1. On the one hand, it relates festivalisation to more global trends affecting Western societies, and specifically those which social scientists have identified from their research into the cultural field and elsewhere. The first section will discuss several transformations (processes) which are at the heart of the transformation of our relationship to culture and particularly to the festivals’ sector. We make the assumption that festivalisation is something that goes beyond national and European borders and beyond the limits of the performing arts. In the second part of this paper, a critical analysis of these changes will be presented which will draw on research into festivals’ audiences. It will focus on the differences in motivation, intensity, style, practices that exist within festivals’ audiences. These differences are sometimes traceable to national characteristics, even if the latter are weaker today than yesterday (Bonet and Négrier 2011)