Human beings need to gather, to celebrate, they need their spirits to soar, to witness artistic genius, to feel chills and goosebumps run down their spines, to revel in the thrill of live performance and shared experience, to clap and be applauded, to amaze and be amazed, to laugh, shout, and be joyful together. [...] In Asia where I come from, the festival is inextricably linked to rituals: human acts to express the self, the community, and our place in the larger cosmos of both the visible and the invisible. [...] These rituals are often about the world of the living coming to terms with death, the death of the body, the death in nature, as well as the arrival of new life, regeneration, and sustenance. [...] • In general, can the future internationalization of festivals interweave with local contexts to create a braid of the international and the local, each informing and nurturing the other? How can this interweaving be vitally installed in the DNA of the festival, from its inception to the manifestation? • Can the digitalization of parts of the festival and some of its processes enrich this interwea. [...] 31 Thought Piece THE FUTURE OF MEGA-EVENTS… AND FESTIVALS’ CRUCIAL ROLE IN SUCH FUTURE By: Beatriz Garcia DIRECTOR OF CC:RO | CITIES OF CULTURE RESEARCH OBSERVATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL EXPLAINS WHY THE FUTURE OF MEGA-EVENTS LIKE THE OLYMPICS IS TIED TO THE FUTURE OF FESTIVALS The arrival of COVID-19 has transformed the world we live in and put all major cultural events and festivals on.
- Pages
- 51
- Published in
- Austria
