The spatial production of festivals: Ritualization, liminality and performativity

In the creative and cultural industry, festival organizations must strategize to attract and engage participants, provide unique experiences and, thereby, to persist and thrive as an event in an increasingly competitive festival market. A festival’s spatial production is essential for its differentiation from other events in a shared field. This chapter inquires how a festival space is organized and produced so as to establish its cultural significance and distinctiveness. This is explored by applying ‘ritualization’ as a conceptual lens which construes festivals as temporary, liminal spaces produced and distinguished from ordinary, everyday settings, having (un)intended performative consequences. This chapter is based on an ethnographic case study of an 18-day festival ‘Tribal Gathering’ in March 2020 and how its space was produced by non-profit organization GeoParadise, various ‘tribes’ or representatives of indigenous communities, volunteers and attendees as a heterogenous community. Data was gathered via a desk study, in-depth interviewing and participant-observation, including photographs, videos and fieldnotes. The findings of this research contribute to literature on organizational space in two main ways. First, the chapter provides the conceptual lens of ritualization which exhibits the production and distinction of the festival space via three main strategies: (1) the isolation of space, (2) the co-production of space and (3) the aestheticization of space. Second, exploring the liminality and performativity of the festival’s spatial production provides a research focus beyond conventional workspaces; namely liminal spaces that blur the boundary between work and play and are conducive to transformation.