ABSTRACT

This book aims at renewing the attention on a niche field, Cultural Festivals, so important for valorizing cultural traditions and local heritage visibility as well as social well-being. Following the disruptive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, this fragile sector deserves more attention from public authorities and stakeholders at national and European levels with a suitable and dedicated plan of recovery and valorization.

This book provides a comparative analysis of Cultural Festivals in Europe, taking insights from an international range of high-level scholarly contributors. Individual chapters highlight and analyse challenges around the organisation, management and economics of Cultural Festivals. As a whole, the book provides a comprehensive overview of scholarly research in this area, setting the scene for the future research agenda. Matters related to educational programs and new audience development, as well as challenges related to digitalization, are also included.

The book employs a tradition versus innovation lens to help readers account for the consequences of the digital revolution, new audience development and an educational agenda. The result is a book which will be valuable reading for researchers, academics and students in the fields of event and cultural management and beyond.

Chapters 4 and 9 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. They have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

Managing Cultural Festivals: Context, Challenges and New Avenues of Research

part I|82 pages

Cultural Festivals Organization and Management

chapter 1|21 pages

The Tradition of Being Innovative

The Case of the Venice Biennale and Its Venice International Film Festival

chapter 3|21 pages

From Festa to Festival

UNESCO Heritage and the (Invented) Tradition of a Cultural Festival

chapter 4|20 pages

Innovation in Early Music Festivals

Domains, Strategies and Outcomes

part II|75 pages

Challenges of Cultural Festivals in the Digital Age

chapter 5|15 pages

A Classical Music Festival and Its Audience

The Case of MITO Settembre Musica

chapter 6|20 pages

Ferrara Buskers Festival (1998–2001)

Design, Emerging Meanings and Sense Making

chapter 7|17 pages

Becoming a Symbol and Losing Control

The Gothenburg Book Fair and the Alt-right Debate

chapter 8|21 pages

Music Festivals and Educational Concerts in Spain

A Landscape between Tradition and Innovation

part III|104 pages

Value and Impacts of Cultural Festivals at Local and Regional Level

chapter 9|18 pages

(The Economics of) Cultural Festivals in the Digital Age

An Analysis of the Comics Publishing Industry

chapter 10|21 pages

Beyond Economic Impact

The Cultural and Social Effects of Arts Festivals

chapter 11|22 pages

Cultural Value of a Festival

The Quality Evaluator for Assessing Impact

chapter 12|18 pages

Cultural Events and Japanese Pop Culture in Europe

The Case of the Japan Expo in France

chapter 13|23 pages

Facts about Music Festivals

What We Know and What We Would Like to Know 1