ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the festival is a social process that is constituted by, and constitutive of, community. Despite the high degree of commodification of the relevant cultural product that prevails in both the film and music industries, the copyright aspects of music festivals are different to those of film festivals because music festivals are primarily concerned with live musical performances. Building on the idea of festivals as distinct and sociable places in time and space are conceptions of festivals that refer to their value as social, cultural, economic or political institutions and, thus, as expressing values associated with such institutions. Many of these same issues arise in relation to what are described as culture festivals, which are extremely diverse and might very well comprehend elements of film/video and music amongst their rich diet of cultural activities.
