ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the feelings and sensual dimensions of festivals, and how these may contribute to forms of sociality or exclusion – sociality meaning those fleeting moments of connectedness, or sense of “being in the groove together,” as described by C. Keil and S. Feld. Festivals are fundamentally about generating ideas about community, place, and belonging, and are popularly used to create and affirm a shared sense of belonging or to generate new forms of identification with certain constructions of community identity. Many community festivals include a street party or parade to promote the festival and engage residents and festival attendees; these are a crucial mechanism to help address social fractures within communities. Festivals “have become an established part of the repertoire of contemporary urban planning”. However, the role of festivals is often to challenge, prod, and instigate new ways of thinking about place and social spaces.
