Understanding festivalisation in the contemporary landscape of urban art festivals

Abstract

This project seeks to understand the contemporary landscape of urban art festivals, and the phenomenon of “festivalisation”, to provide an overview and discussion of the current topics and challenges in the external market of urban art festivals. The project will explore the existing academic literature on the topic of “festivalisation”, focusing on understanding the relationship between cities and art festivals, and how urban cultural policy has affected the proliferation of festivals, leading to the phenomenon of “festivalisation”. The literature review will discuss the general benefits and consequences of policy-led urban art festivals, through specific case of Edinburgh as a ‘festival city’ before exploring the contemporary landscape of “festivalisation” and recent emerging challenges.

The general benefits and consequences of policy-led urban art festivals and recent emerging challenges of “festivalisation” will serve as a part of an external market analysis in the business case of OFF – Odense International Film Festival, and their work towards establishing an additional film festival in the spring of 2025. The external analysis will seek to understand the specific market situation of OFF, before discussing the relevance of establishing a new film festival in the contemporary festival landscape of urban arts festivals. The project will establish general topics and challenges of the contemporary market of art festivals and reflect on the potential practical implications within a specific business case, whilst also commenting on the general effects of the contemporary landscape of urban art festivals.