ABSTRACT
This chapter scrutinizes the current politics of music festivals along two binary dimensions — left versus right and corporate versus independent. It aims to accomplish three interrelated goals. The first is to argue that music festivals today are an integral part of wider branding practices and as such are primarily focused on creating sign values through the commodification of festival experience in its totality, from its material expressions to its affective attachments. The second is to critically assess the underlying contradictions and political implications arising from the production of music festivals as brandscapes. The third is to instigate discussion on politics with a capital ‘P’ in contemporary music festivals by exploring the political potential of a concept the author developed in his doctoral study on national identity and music festivals: the idea of music festivals as micronational spaces. The chapter provides information on the corresponding idea of microcitizenship to propose new theoretical terms for imagining music festival collectivities.
