ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses how the possibilities for musical participation are negotiated in context. It argues that interaction ritual theory, as pioneered by Emile Durkheim and Erving Goffman and more lately developed by Randall Collins, provides with a lens that may help to discover important aspects of this kind of work. The chapter provides three various interpretations; participation as style of self-presentation, participation as co-creation of social space, and participation as ritual negotiation. It offers a description of five different styles of self-presentation based on observations of the various workshops of the festival, an analysis of the video material, and consultation with relevant literature. These are non-participation, silent participation, conventional participation, adventurous participation and eccentric participation. Non-participation, for instance, may gradually be transformed into silent participation which again may turn into conventional participation. Elaborated conventional participation at some point becomes adventurous, and if escalated further may turn into eccentric participation.
