ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the clichs of non-metropolitan living through an exploration of contemporary engagement with festivals and folk art. It discusses the author's own experience of attending a local annual custom: the Tichborne Dole and how contemporary practice of this ancient festival might be related to Hobsbawm's notion of invented tradition. It focuses from festivals to folk art more widely, through an investigation of Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane's Folk Archive, exploring idea that these practices are not simply grounded in a nostalgic rendering of past but are fluid, creative responses to contemporary village. The English village is obviously a very different environment from the streets of Beijing, however would like to suggest that non-metropolitan festival could also be an arena which brings these conflicting identities to surface. For instance Tar Barrel Rolling festival, celebrated each 5 November in Ottery St. Mary, Devon, the event involves running through the village carrying a tar coated barrel which has been set aligh.
