Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
These generally positive economic effects are often criticized as being one-sided
in their views. Three key
negative effects of festivals
can be recognized. Critical
theorists
,
such as Harvey (
1992
), see festivals as the new masks of postmodern ex-
ploitation that obscure the societal losses that occur from ignoring their impact on
the rest of the life of the city, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Certainly such
groups may take part in the festival and may be enthused by it. However the spaces
that they have occupied as dwellings or leisure areas are frequently taken over by
the growth of the festival grounds justified by arguments that relate to maximizing
the profit from sites that become the new spaces of festivity. Meanwhile, their badly
required social needs—of affordable housing or various social services—are either
poorly financed, or ignored. Instead, public tax money often goes to support the de-
velopment of the festival, encouraging the conspicuous consumption designed for
out-of-town tourists, or better still in the eyes of the business elite involved in such
events, in high spending international visitors, rather than to help disadvantaged
locals.
A second negative effect comes from the increasing corporate control of festi-
vals, often to the disadvantage of small, local businesses. The larger the festivals
get, the more major national and international corporations seek exclusive sales
in particular activities during the event—at least in the areas controlled by the
festival—in food, drink and other goods. In return, the festival gets financial sup-
port or sponsorship from the companies involved. Increasingly, these payments help
to finance many of the events in the festivals, so their organizers become dependent
on such support. Local businesses often get squeezed out, unless there is a strong,
deliberate emphasis upon local or regional products in the function of the festival.
Third, when the emphasis is placed on the festival as a tourist event something local
is frequently lost. Gibson (
2005
) has described how the local elite encouraged the
transformation of the Lent festival in New Orleans into a national and international
secular event, building upon the uniqueness of the city as the home of jazz and the
blues and its historical French flair. Combined with its ethnic composition these
roots produced life-styles more tolerant than most American cities, which contrib-
uted to the development of a party atmosphere and the extension of the boundaries
of accepted morality. But many in the city deplore these excesses and the interna-
tionalization of the event means some of its original localism is lost, while its high
prices exclude many residents from participating.
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Utility of Festivals
The creation of so many new types of festivals in the past thirty years and the
revival or re-orientation of many old ones provide many points of value to cit-
ies, that complement more permanent places of leisure and entertainment in cities,
from theatres and bars to parks. They ensure that festive events should be seen as
essential features of contemporary urbanity, perhaps re-creating their importance
in pre-Reformation and Enlightenment days, although with very different empha-
ses and roles. There seems little doubt that festivals of whatever type have always
