Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
with accommodation tents, meeting places for the celebrants to hear their leaders,
eating areas, cooking sites and sanitation places, the major parts being separated
by wide roads. This deliberate planning has eradicated many of the old problems
of crowd congestion, sanitation and waste disposal in particular, although the ritual
bathing of so many people in an already polluted river still causes huge health con-
cerns. Similar planning to accommodate the temporary crowds drawn to festivals
has been a vital need in many other festival sites, although not on this vast scale.
Another set of problems may occur with crowd behaviour. Crowds may be
initially exuberant but can quickly turn negative when overcrowding or coercive
monitoring occurs. Some people take the opportunity of their anonymity in crowds
to engage in anti-social behaviour; others use the occasion to indulge in excessive
drinking or drugs to heighten their experiences. So festival policing is important;
trouble-makers need to be calmed down or perhaps removed, discretely, before they
affect the behaviour of others. These examples show that without appropriate regu-
lation and policies to cope with crowds, the event can get out of control and inflict
serious damage upon people and the local environment. In extreme case riots may
develop, as seen in Berlin's Love Festivals, or the early Notting Hill Festivals—al-
though careful monitoring has now led to this latter event being largely peaceful.
Another series of possible problems stem from the extent of community partici-
pation in festivals. Frequently the term 'participation' is used almost as a mother-
hood concept, with the assumption that co-operation and nurturing will occur within
the area if a festival is created. In practice, different people in the community may
have divergent views about how the event should be organised, about its content, or
wish to exert their own control, leading to rivalry and dissention, as seen in exam-
ples already described. It is possible that acceptance of some overall community or
group benefit will outweigh other factors and provoke cohesion, but this is far from
guaranteed. So some attempt to find benefits that appeal to as wide a population
as possible is needed for the event to be successful. Leadership is a key ingredient
of the initial stages of a festival's conception; many festivals have been developed
through the persistence and skills of one individual. Similarly there is no assurance
that a festival will be successful. Historically, perhaps, fear of not giving thanks
for seasonal changes, participating in religious rituals or the celebratory effect of
political success, was enough to help a festival. Yet for the participants the release
from normal workdays by providing holidays for the festival and the anticipation
of socialization plus indulging in goods in short supply certainly helped success. In
the contemporary world there is little doubt that a great deal of work needs to be
done on striving for excellence in the events, in advertising their merits, especially
if the festival is to be more than something that is for local participants. But there
is always something entrepreneurial involved and not all people hoping to benefit
from the event will make the right choice, leaving unwanted goods or services and
financial failures for some companies. The experience of the Millennium Dome in
London, a centre point of the Britain's 2000 festivities, was one that has failed to
find a subsequent rationale. This stands in stark contrast to successes such as the
Eiffel Tower, built to mark the entrance to a World Fair site in 1889 that celebrated
