FestSpace

Drive-ins are thriving, but should we encourage exclusive events that champion car use?

6th August 2020
No Comment

During the summer of 2020, event organisers have been forced to think of ways of staging events that don’t contravene measures to restrict the spread of COVID-19. One of the most obvious options is to stage drive-in events: by confining attendees to private vehicles, contact between them can be restricted. These events conjure up images […]

Festspace reflections on festivals, events and public space during COVID-19

27th July 2020
No Comment

Our FESTSPACE team has been contributing to discussions and debates about the future of festivals, events and public space during the COVID-19 global pandemic and as we emerge from its more urgent effects. In this post we pull together these contributions in their various multimedia forms. Festivals, events and COVID-19: Navigating a global pandemic Firstly, […]

‘Stories from the Streets’: COVID-19 and (hyper) local collective responses

14th July 2020
No Comment

While formal, officially sanctioned social gatherings were banned during lockdown, more localised and creative responses to the restrictions associated with COVID-19 were evident, across the world. From the balcony concerts of Barcelona, to the socially distanced street parties celebrating VE Day in London and the neighbourhood DJ sets taking place in other cities, the everyday, […]

Festivals and events in London’s parks

13th July 2020
No Comment

In 2019, The Royal Parks ran a competition for artists and photographers based on the question: ‘What does Hyde Park mean to you?’. Several of the winning entries depicted music festivals – which was apt as they were displayed on the fence surrounding the British Summer Time Festival. This prominent installation highlighted that London’s parks […]

30th June 2020
No Comment

Being able to use public space is something we routinely take for granted. However, in recent months governments have actively sought to control and restrict access to, and use of, public space. People have been required to limit their social interactions and to practice ‘social distancing’, to restrict their movements away from home, and to […]

19th May 2020
No Comment

People across the world have had to get used to a situation where cultural activity based on collective participation and occupation of public space is suspended. However, culture is still important and people instinctively want to come together to enjoy collective experiences. Frustration and fear of an uncertain future has been converted into creative energy, […]

Festivals, events and the COVID-19 pandemic

7th April 2020
No Comment

Our FESTSPACE project was conceived in a pre COVID-19 world, where those interested in festivals, events and urban policy were debating how to best design and manage public spaces to bring people together, to encourage co-presence and generate convivial atmospheres involving as wide a representation of the population as possible. At that time, our concerns […]

Updates from Barcelona: Cultural festivals, local and global interaction

17th February 2020
No Comment

Rome Statute In a city with a high density and agglomeration, the Barcelona research team, focused on observing, during the first stage of the project, the intensity of uses of diverse public spaces in the city by events and culture festivals. The project analyses the coexistence of different events in these spaces alongside the creation […]

FESTSPACE researchers contribute to public meeting on the commodification of Edinburgh’s public spaces

30th January 2020
No Comment

On Wednesday 22nd January, 2020, more than 700 people attended a public meeting titled “City for Sale: The Commodification of Edinburgh’s Public Spaces” in Central Hall, Edinburgh. Organised by the Cockburn Association, this event was the outcome of controversy developing over several months caused by the use of Princes Street Garden for Christmas Markets and […]

Call for papers: Festivals and the City (2020 RGS-IBG Conference)

18th December 2019
No Comment

In the context of the 2020 RGS-IBG Annual Conference, held at the Royal Geographical Society in London from Tuesday 1 to Friday 4 September 2020, the Festspace research team has released the following call for papers for a session focused on Festivals and the city. Abstracts can be sent by 31st January 2020. Festivals and the city: […]