From host to guest settings

How the music festival has changed over time

Bibliographic Data

ID12236159
AuthorsThomas Calkins (0000-0003-4060-6480, Erasmus University Rotterdam, corresponding author), Britt Swartjes (0000-0003-4693-0783, Boekman Foundation, Institute for Arts, Culture and Related Policy)
Year2025
Pages1-19
Publication date2025-10-23
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Trends (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-8963 • E-ISSN: 1469-3690
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09548963.2025.2576681
OpenAlexW4415475301
LanguageEN
References cited35

Over the past decades the number of music festivals has increased substantially – a trend often referred to as “festivalization” – especially within urban areas. While scholars have noted the socio-cultural and economic importance of music festivals for cities, how the process of festivalization has developed within urban space over time is less well known. Because of this our understanding of music festivals as a changing socio-cultural form, as well as how they relate to everyday lived-in spaces remains limited. Using an original dataset built from archival sources, we analyse music festival development in two cities (Rotterdam and Milwaukee) over a half century. The findings suggest that music festivals, as a cultural form, initially “hosted” visitors in spaces located at a remove from urban life. But since the mid-2000s, music festivals have increasingly emerged in the city, serving as “guests” in the everyday third places of neighbourhoods

Host (biology · Key (lock · Music festival · Popular music · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

Tools

Open DOI