ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potential implications of the spreading phenomenon of small and medium-sized events: for instance, the capability of smaller events to exploit local resources in long-term perspectives and in wide territorial areas, even in places that don’t matter. The proliferation of small and medium-sized events has been frequently spontaneous, as it has been often originated within cultural and economic activities promoted by different actors: for instance, local and supra-local cultural and entrepreneurial associations, even in collaboration with local, national, and international institutions. The world diffusion of events has exponentially intensified since the 1990s, in parallel to the deindustrialization of Western cities and countries, the intensification of the economic and cultural globalization, as well as the development of successful projects: for instance, the celebration of the 1992 Olympics, which accelerated the post-Fordist urban change and international repositioning of Barcelona.
