Glastonbury

Managing the mystification of festivity

Bibliographic Data

ID11435781
AuthorsJenny Flinn (0000-0002-5864-8366, Glasgow Caledonian University, corresponding author), Matt Frew (0000-0002-2705-5816, Bournemouth University)
Year2014
Volume33
Issue4
Pages418-433
Publication date2014-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLeisure Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-4367 • E-ISSN: 1466-4496
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02614367.2012.751121
OpenAlexW2017060854
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited40

The realm of music festivity has grown into a global circuit that responds to the demand for emotive experiential products and taps into postmodern themes that celebrate a lifestyle attitude of extended youth. This paper investigates the phenomenon of festival culture through a case study of Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. It highlights how modern music festivals have become sites of mediated brand management where commodified hyper-experiences are considered as new forms of contested cultural capital. Through a critical conceptual matrix that combines the work of Bourdieu, Pine and Gilmore, and Jensen the authors critically explore the interplay between the experiential dimension, mystical and fantasy narratives and the political contestation of festivity. Focusing on Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2010 the study presents an innovative interpretation of festivity through multi and social media. The authors argue that, while promoted as an ethical festival that celebrates its anti-commercial countercultural cool, Glastonbury reflects a modern cathedral of consumption where experiences are the mediated and managerially puppeteered capital of the field. However, festivity is moving beyond management as it is increasingly dependant on the co-creative social media activity of consumers to perpetuate the fantasy and capital of festivity

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Commodification · Fantasy · Humanities · Literature · Media studies · Postmodernism · Realm · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · History · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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