ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the linkage between music festivals and music scenes – in this instance, the scene devoted to progressive rock. The term ‘music festival’ sometimes refers to mammoth events that can enjoy extensive corporate sponsorship (Laing 2004). However, mammoth festivals have not been found in the progressive rock scene of recent decades. Although this scene is large in terms of the territory it spans – crossing both oceans and continents – it is notably small in terms of the number of participants it has. This small size is matched by a lack of attention from mainstream actors: corporations, critics and others have mostly ignored this recent scene and its music. Consequently, the global proliferation of ‘prog’ rock festivals from the 1990s onwards was due mainly to the efforts of scene members themselves – with musicians, owners of small businesses (such as online record shops) and fans mobilizing to launch and support festivals that occurred well outside the mainstream.
