[Dancecult-l] liveness

[Michael MacDonald]

This is a really interesting question. Since you mentioned Glastonbury and then asked about 'liveness' I have to suppose that you equate festival with liveness. I've been working on festival culture for the last four years and there is a reallying interesting disconnect between liveness (going out to see a performer or group at a live event) and a festival. For instance it is very common to hold a festival event in Canada during the summer and draw 10-15k people. However, if you were to take the main headliners of the concert and put it in a venue you would draw less than 400. I just started working on EDM this year and so far, with very few examples mind you, I'm noticing the same results. 

All this to say that 'liveness' and 'festival-ness' do not seem to be the same thing. One festival director I interviewed called this the 'eventer effect' that is when people are drawn by the human spectacle of the event instead of the advertised musical entertainment. Some Canadian folk festival have actually stopped advertising their lineups because they have noticed that it doesn't affect attendance numbers. This does not seem to me the case for any event that is held 'in-doors'. Which seems like a unusual pre-requisite however these types of events seem to work best when held in outdoor environments.

Again, since I'm just starting to cross over from folk festival research to explore EDM festivals I can only suggest what I've seen up till now. I should say that my decision to cross over was not my own choice. It was because there is a certain percentage of the audience that attends both festivals and more artists ,at the request of younger artistic directors, are performing at both. I would be very interested in the thoughts of other list members.
 
Michael MacDonald 
University of Alberta
Music Department
Ethnomusicology
PhD student

----- Original Message ----
From: slightly muddy <slightly.muddy at virgin.net>
To: Dancecult-l at listcultures.org
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 4:39:25 AM
Subject: [Dancecult-l] liveness

this is really directed to non-uk members of the list:
In Britian there seems to have been a resurgence of, not to say 
obsession with live music in the past year or so. The past weekend has 
been marked by virtual blanket media coverage of the Glastonbury 
festival, for example. Whilst I am aware of other festivals and such 
like in the US and Europe, I wonder whether the emphasis on liveness is 
a phenomenon to be found in other parts of the world?

p g-b


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