ABSTRACT
Court and civic festivals in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can usefully be divided into two main types of event: ceremonies and spectacles. Ceremonies are those events which do not just demonstrate power relations in symbolic fashion but which actually bring power structures into being. While ceremonies create power structures, therefore, spectacles act them out and present them symbolically, often showing how they can better operate. This is not to say that ceremonies do not resemble performances, but rather that they are not performances in the same way that operas, ballets, carrousels and firework dramas are. An equally essential component of a festival is the official record. Official records, however, were conceived with memorial in mind. They fall into three main groups: one-off two-dimensional records; one-off three-dimensional records; and mass-produced records intended for wide distribution and general consumption. One-off two-dimensional records include manuscript accounts and depictions of festivals and paintings.
