Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
from the routines, daily grind and problems of normal urban life. It is also possible
to view festivals as escape valves which resolve and diffuse the general tensions and
desires that are always present in local communities and broader societies. It has
already been noted that festival days often led some to abandon usual life-styles,
leading to indulgence or even chaos, behaviours which were temporarily tolerated
before normal order and mores were restored. These features can be still seen as
some of the basic tenets of many festivals today. However, whatever exists behind
these outward forms there can be no doubt that historical festivals were designed to
reinforce beliefs or allegiance and create solidarity.
14﻽7
Conclusions
The creation of so many new types of festivals in the past thirty years, as well as
the revival or re-orientation of old ones, has added substantially to the vibrancy and
differentiation of urban places. This makes it possible to argue that they should be
considered as one of the important new ways in the transformation of contemporary
urbanization, perhaps part of the culture-led urban regeneration that Miles and Pad-
dison ( 2005 ) have suggested as playing a pivotal position in new urban develop-
ments through entrepreneurial activity. Ponzini and Rossi ( 2010 , p. 1039) are more
specific in describing this urban policy culturalisation as
a new stage of entrepreneurial urbanism centred on the dynamic of the immaterial (atmo-
sphere, vibrancy, creativity) and material factors (regeneration areas, monuments etc.).
Festivals, therefore, provide a way of expressing the revival of these interests that
have too long been forgotten in the mundane, work-orientated approach to urban
development.
The specific impact of festivals is especially important in those centres—not only
big centres—that have a number of sequential festive events in the year, resulting in
an almost continuous air of festivity to parts of some settlements (Gravari-Barbas
2007 ). Yet even a single important festive event effectively brands a community,
town or city, and provides an important addition to their range of experiences and
life-styles. So the increasing importance of these events, in experiential as much
as economic terms, should be recognized as providing an additional and valuable
component to the new urban themes of the past few decades described in other
chapters, such as New Urbanisms, Green, Safe or more Sustainable cities etc., and
also expand the people-centred approaches to urban places promoted by some writ-
ers (Gehl 2010 ). However there is a danger that festivals become dominated by
the elite, resulting in extensions of exploitation and corporate control, ignoring the
needs of the disadvantaged in urban places. Certainly festive events were an impor-
tant part of the pre-industrial city, but their role diminished, first with the growth
of a dour, fun-less and moralistic nonconformity in the western world which led
to the loss of many older festivals, second with an industrialization that focused
on work, leaving little time for leisure, and third with the decline of religion and
the secularization of society which led to a modernity that resulted in many people
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