Mapping vernacular creativity: the extent and diversity of rural festivals in Australia CHRIS GIBSoN, CHRIS BRENNAN-HoRLEy AND JIM WALMSLEy

Introduction The idea that creativity is vital to regional economies has been increasingly debated in Australia, as elsewhere. Although creativity has been taken more seriously by governments, it has often been ‘folded into’ normative ideas of market-led place competition, with biases towards commodifiable forms of creativity (that produce copyright/content) and urban, middle-class neighbourhoods and aesthetics (see Gibson, 2009 for extended critique).