OPINION ARTICLES

Festivals or rituals?
Festival politics, religiosity and sociability,
or
The importance of the court jester.

Part II – Core phenomena: experiences and meanings.

The basis of the events study is the experience of the event and the meanings associated with events and their experiences. The experience is personal and social. The meanings, personal, social, cultural and economic, are multiple. To achieve the desired experiences, knowledge of culture, the arts and environmental psychology are required.

From the solemn spirituality of religious pilgrimages and celebratory rituals, to the fun and revelry of entertainment, carnivals and festivities, the potential for event experiences is vast. The experience of event tourism must be perceived holistically, including the conceptualisation and study of the behavioural, affective and cognitive dimensions, and their interrelationship.

The meanings of three types of experience can be explored: the authentic, the leisurely meaningful and the place experiences.

The authenticity of the experience of an event began with Van Gennep’s thoughts on human experience and rites of passage. Participation in rites is categorised as pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal. All liminal experiences would then be considered authentic.

Turner, in his anti-structure theory, revisited and expanded on Van Gennep’s thoughts, addressing the distinction between liminality and liminoid, and between sacred and profane events. For Turner, leisure was a state of disconnection from the normal, and he identified the whole process of participating in rites as a transition from the ordinary to the unusual as liminality, a period in which the person develops a sense of autonomy and independence, indifferent to their regular perception and with the transformative potential to produce an atmosphere of pleasure. For Turner, more secular and profane experiences, at carnivals and festivals, are described as liminoid. Falassi broadened this differentiation in his classification of profane events, including four cardinals of festive behaviour: reversal, intensification, inversion and abstinence.

In all forms of liminality there is communitas, an experience of greater friendliness, openness and a feeling of belonging to a larger group. Although this experience in temporary events is ephemeral and brief, when people join strangers to take part in festivities, they help us to tolerate and make sense of life. The ultimate experience is redemption through epiphany or the experience of samadhi, or oneness.

In entertainment, where an experience is exchanged for money, the affective component can be included, although the experience of finding meaning may not result in a transformation. In religion, or in “sacred shopping”, there is no search for the experience of the transcendent, which is why it is often mistaken for authentic experience by desperate people.

Experience is a subjective state of consciousness shaped by hedonistic responses, symbolic meanings and aesthetic criteria, or fantasies, feelings and fun, and is most satisfying and memorable when it reaches a state of flow. Flow theory includes both loss of self-consciousness and transcendence of the norm, so at festivals the existence of a liminal experience can be identified if participants’ behaviour reveals a loss of self-consciousness, a fusion of action and consciousness, a sense of self-control and an altered sense of time. Flow refers to the presence of a holistic sensation referring to the action of total involvement, without the need for conscious intervention and according to internal logic, being experienced as one, between moments, with the feeling of self-control of one’s actions, and in which there are no differences between the self and the environment, the stimulus and the response, or between past, present and future. The flow experience is characterised by the blending of action and consciousness without dualism, encouragement through the centralisation of action, the loss of ego, control of one’s actions and the environment, the coherence and non-contradictoriness of action with the provision of clear and evident feedback, and the potential for happiness without the need for goals or rewards.

Festivals fall under the umbrella of major events that offer extraordinary experiences, as distinct from the daily flow of experiences, such as rites of passage, moments of authenticity or common celebration. They have the characteristics of a performance, the movement to a separate location in which symbolic values and roles are assigned to objects (props; sets) and people (actors; audience) and the differentiation from observing everyday rules and conventions. They can either be rites of intensification that subject the participant to extreme emotional or physical experiences that lead to greater self-knowledge, or they can be rites of integration that consolidate shared cultural values and introduce a temporary sense of closeness, or communitas, through interaction with others.

The leisure experience can be analysed using Nash’s leisure pyramid on the use of leisure time. In this pyramid, acts with a negative value, below zero, include, in ascending order, antisocial acts (delinquency or crime), acts to the detriment of oneself (excesses), and passive participation (or “spectatoritis”; killing time, escape, fun, entertainment). Acts with positive values, considered “pure participation”, include emotional participation (meaningful experiences, change in appreciation of the environment, need for deep experiences), active participation (in addition to emotional participation, it includes physical and social interaction), and creative participation (emotional and active, involving intellectual and collaborative participation in the creation of their leisure experiences, alert, active, receptive and transformed into a new person).

The leisure experience will be more meaningful the more a person identifies with a particular event, through the presence of a familiar person, the location, theme, status or typology, or the ability of the festival participants to channel the emotion of the crowd. The significance of the experience will be directly proportional to the guest’s interest, which can either lead to a lack of repeat visits, at one extreme, or to becoming a fan, at the other. The experience can be positive even if unpleasant or challenging incidents occur, because they can be overcome by the individual, with benefits in terms of feelings of control and mastery.

Place and space, considered from the perspective of experience, include their intangible essence created through experience, where the context creates the intimacy of the place. The experience becomes more meaningful if there are other significant elements. Place stems from the embodied experience of self, space and time. The growing popularisation of festivals can be traced back to the existence of a special place with meaning, value and connection, both tangible and intangible, created through intimate and embodied human experience.

A festival is a space in which festival-goers seek an extraordinary experience, which presents special organisational problems given the emotional and symbolic meanings associated with the place itself. In order for the participants’ experience to be more valued, leading to transformation and personal growth (the ultimate goals of the experience), the creative space for the co-creation of the experience must be offered by the organisation. At the festival, each individual will choose their own path, create their own space (or experiential or existential domain) within the physical venue, centring on spaces where they feel most at home, with music, activities and company.

Understanding the complexity of the visitor experience is represented through Morgan’s event experience prism, which brings together external elements of event management (design; operation) with internal elements (internal meanings and benefits). This prism, based on Crompton’s distinction between push and pull factors of tourist motivations, and Kapferer’s brand identity prism, creates a holistic model of the interaction between event management and the visitor. The festival’s image is made up of design and programme elements (which create the event’s personality) and physical operational elements, which make up the event’s practical attributes. These create the opportunity for social interaction (between visitors and artists, but also with other visitors) and for the communication of shared cultural meanings. As a result, the participant will experience personal benefits (such as enjoyment, socialisation and self-development) and symbolic meanings (a sense of integration and identification with external meanings and values of the event). The main elements identified by Morgan as being important to the visitor are abundant choice, moments of amazement, shared experiences, the fringe is at the heart, (i.e., group centredness, where moments of amazement and social interactions take place), local distinctiveness, holistic evaluation (of the experience) and creative communities (co-creation).

Bibliography:

BIAETT, Vernon (2013) Exploring the On-site Behavior of Attendees at Community Festivals: A Social Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach, Tese de Doutoramento: Arizona State University.

GETZ, Donald (2010) “The Nature and Scope of Festival Studies”, International Journal of Event Management Research, 5:1, pp.1-47.

GETZ, Donald (2008) “Event tourism: Definition, evolution, and research”, Tourism Management, 29:3, pp.403-428.

GETZ, Donald e PAGE, Stephen G. (2016) “Progress and prospects for event tourism research”, Tourism Management, 52, pp.593-631.

HASTINGS, Kathy A. (2015) Communitas, Civitas, Humanitas: The Art of Creating Authentic Sense of Community and Spirit of Place, Tese de Doutoramento: Holos University.

MORGAN, M. (2007) “Festival Spaces and the Visitor Experience”. In: CASADO-DIAZ et al. (eds.) Social and Cultural Change: Making Space(s) for Leisure and Tourism. Eastbourne, UK: Leisure Studies Association, pp. 113-130.

TURNER, Victor (1974) Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: an Essay in Comparative Symbology, Rice Institute Pamphlet-Rice University Studies, 60:3, pp.53-92.

Authorship: João Carvalho [1], Victor Afonso [2], Nuno Gustavo [3].

Based on the project work “Business plan. Cosmic Festival. Transformational Festival”, authored by João Carvalho, under the supervision of Specialist Professor Victor Afonso and co-supervision of PhD Professor Nuno Gustavo, for completion of the Master’s Degree in Tourism, with a specialisation in Strategic Event Management, at the Estoril Higher Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies. Presented and defended on December 27th, 2019.

May, 2020.

[1] Master’s Degree in Tourism, with specialisation in Strategic Event Management, by Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies; Beach Break®.

[2] Specialist Professor (Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies; Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics at the University of Évora – CEFAGE).

[3] PhD Professor (Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies; Centre for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism – CITUR).