ABSTRACT
Festivals can therefore be the instigator and site of political struggles but they can also bring communities together, however temporarily and tentatively, in shaping a common goal of celebrating local place. Indeed most music festivals, other than some of the more commercial, are intricately linked to particular places and intended to promote, internally and externally, a sense of place and community. Wagner Festivals in Bayreuth have been controversial for Wagner's associations with German nationalism, and his descendants with National Socialism. But such extremes are rare and conflicts over music festivals are more usually about such banal, yet important, issues as noise, congestion, disruption, which profits, and whether staging a festival is worthwhile for economic and social reasons. More subtle issues reflect notions of authenticity, credibility and local identity, as festivals give participants the opportunity to express identity and negotiate themes of belonging, whether to local places or to musical communities.
