The Festival as Form
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: English
Abstract
Festivals are a vital part of the UK's creative economy. Over a third of UK adults have visited one (source: Ticketmaster), and alongside the 350 designated literary festivals, many of the large general ones now include literary zones for poetry, theatre and discussion. Festivals are also changing how people access new work: market analysts Neilsen Bookscan argue that the 66% rise in poetry sales between 2012-2017 has been substantially driven by the appetite for contemporary poetry encountered at festivals and live events (Bookseller, 13.4.18).
Yet despite the large amount of anthropological background on festivals, there has been little research into the way contemporary festivals shape the performances within them (Comunian, 2016), and almost nothing on the relationship between festivals and modern literature. Debates on music festivals often turn on the degree to which festivals' countercultural credentials have been appropriated by the market; the literary festival, too, suffers 'a crisis of identity', claims Johansen (2012), torn between being the vehicle for star authors, and a means for readers to feel more like genuine participants in a discussion. But research which tracks questions of status alone has reduced the immersive richness, contingency and complexity of the participants' experience within the overall festival flow, notes Jamaingal-Jones (2014); it cannot register the hyper-abundant, border-dropping experience of festivals (Turner 1974), and it by-passes the role the arts themselves play in articulating questions of status and inclusion.
This proposal is to examine the contemporary literary-artistic festival as a form. Like a stage or a page layout, the festival is a mixture of a cultural genre, an economic project and a physical space, which frames the arts within it and its audience in distinctive ways. By observing the way selected artists adapt a work for the festival, we aim to understand more of the creative pressures and feedback loops into the work which the festival generates for artists. We will get audiences to do some 'narrated photography' of their experience, asking how they adapt during the festival as consumers, friends, citizens, fans, identity-seekers and co-creators of the festival for their own social media outlets. Interviewing curators and a wide range of stakeholders, we will build up a picture of how the festival as a genre shapes literary creativity, and we will set this within a longer history of its role in modern literature. Our research questions are:
How does the contemporary festival as a genre shape the literary performances within it?
How do festival-goers understand literary events in the light of their all-round experience of the festival?
How have festivals supported the creation of and engagement with works of literature since the early twentieth century?
We will produce a report outlining what festivalization is doing to literature for academic critics, arts professionals and creative directors. And naturally enough, we will invite audiences to make their own response to the research through events at those festivals in subsequent years.
Yet despite the large amount of anthropological background on festivals, there has been little research into the way contemporary festivals shape the performances within them (Comunian, 2016), and almost nothing on the relationship between festivals and modern literature. Debates on music festivals often turn on the degree to which festivals' countercultural credentials have been appropriated by the market; the literary festival, too, suffers 'a crisis of identity', claims Johansen (2012), torn between being the vehicle for star authors, and a means for readers to feel more like genuine participants in a discussion. But research which tracks questions of status alone has reduced the immersive richness, contingency and complexity of the participants' experience within the overall festival flow, notes Jamaingal-Jones (2014); it cannot register the hyper-abundant, border-dropping experience of festivals (Turner 1974), and it by-passes the role the arts themselves play in articulating questions of status and inclusion.
This proposal is to examine the contemporary literary-artistic festival as a form. Like a stage or a page layout, the festival is a mixture of a cultural genre, an economic project and a physical space, which frames the arts within it and its audience in distinctive ways. By observing the way selected artists adapt a work for the festival, we aim to understand more of the creative pressures and feedback loops into the work which the festival generates for artists. We will get audiences to do some 'narrated photography' of their experience, asking how they adapt during the festival as consumers, friends, citizens, fans, identity-seekers and co-creators of the festival for their own social media outlets. Interviewing curators and a wide range of stakeholders, we will build up a picture of how the festival as a genre shapes literary creativity, and we will set this within a longer history of its role in modern literature. Our research questions are:
How does the contemporary festival as a genre shape the literary performances within it?
How do festival-goers understand literary events in the light of their all-round experience of the festival?
How have festivals supported the creation of and engagement with works of literature since the early twentieth century?
We will produce a report outlining what festivalization is doing to literature for academic critics, arts professionals and creative directors. And naturally enough, we will invite audiences to make their own response to the research through events at those festivals in subsequent years.
Publications
Howarth, P B
(2023)
On Tour
in London Review of Books
Howarth, P. B.
(2023)
The Festival as Form Report
| Title | The Festival as Form |
| Description | An 5-minute academic film introducing the issues with festivals and poetry that the Festival as Form research. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Showing it to the British Arts Festival Association inspired follow-on collaboration with theatre leadership group Data Cultural Change (www.dataculturechange.com) to apply the Project's research techniques to its theatres. |
| URL | https://www.festivalasform.org |
| Description | Over the last 15 years UK music and generalist festivals have increasingly been staging poets and writers alongside bands and other events. The Festival as Form is the first study to track how people experience poetry within the whole festival setting, and to show the work that both festivals and poetry are performing. Using participants' own photos and 500,000 words of long narrative interviews, we built up the first in-depth picture of their festival experience. Our unexpected discovery was that festivals of all kinds are cuing people to face and consider personal change and transition: new jobs, addictions, family role conflict, social purpose, sexuality and social attitudes all came under reconsideration in that special atmosphere. Poetry events seem to fast-forward the boundary-lowering process of the festival's sociability, and to encourage honesty and vulnerability. Over half reported some recognition of transition or desire for personal change in their non-festival lives; 15% of our participants described the festival as a transformational experience. Anthropologist David Picard (2016) argues that traditional festivals' purpose is 'the mediation of life-crisis'; this study is one of the first to show how this may be happening within contemporary civic and commercial festivals, notwithstanding their hedonistic reputation. From the interviews we were also able to build up a picture of some of the recurrent elements which create this atmosphere of possibility: abundance (of choice, people, food, art), creative opportunity, social levelling, shifts in time-perception, lowered social boundaries, and an awareness of who was missing. The art itself rarely spoke directly about the changes people wanted to see; instead, participants' reports merged their experience of particular performances with other boundary-dropping experiences (costumes, unexpected encounters, social levelling) so that the poet's words provided analogies, parables and cues for the self-insights being developed over the course of the entire festival. Perceiving the poet and the festival as a continuum shows the festival's formal and material effects on the delivery and reception of the art, and we argue that it should be treated as a creative force / constraint in its own right, not simply an economic platform. But the particular work poets and poetry do is often undervalued and underfunded - partly because it depends so much on hidden labour, and partly because the wider role festivals may be playing in personal well-being is also under-recognised. We discovered evidence of poorly-paid artists and stages that were put together as an afterthought, contributing to problems of diverse audience appeal. Our report concludes with practical and policy recommendations to allow poetry stages to do more of the work they are good at. |
| Exploitation Route | This study shows direct evidence of the social impact of festivals at a personal and well-being level, data that has been lacking in much festival research so far. It should / could affect festival organisers, sponsors and funders to discern impact beyond the economic. Specific impact outcomes so far are: Direct evidence about underpayment of artists is bring presented to the March AGM of the Poetry and Spoken Word group of the Society of Authors, the authors' trade body who advise on payments and contracts. The British Arts Festivals Association have incorporated a scoping question about social impact in their national Festivals Mean Business survey to discover missing data and propel further research. Data Culture Change, an organisation for theatre leaders, will collaborate with me on future research using the same methods with theatre audiences to pick up social impact of their performances. The Forward Foundation, the arts charity which supports poetry and wellbeing as well as poetry prizes, will work with me on building a network to share evidence of poetry events' social impact. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.festivalasform.org |
| Description | Our evidence that festival poetry stages cue attendees towards personal change has sparked interest among festival organisers, theatre management groups and poetry organisations. They are used to providing evidence of the economic impact of the festival to sponsors and trustees, but have never before seen a way to pick up the social impacts of their shows on the self-perceptions of attendees or their lives after the festival. As detailed in the 'Impact' section, I am now in the early stages of follow-on work with the British Arts Festival Association, Data Culture Change and the Forward Foundation to take forward projects gathering more evidence, and using the narrative-based and stylistic research methods in non-festival settings. 2024: the BAFA have put a question derived from my research in their Festivals Mean Business survey and I am in the process of analysing the responses to target follow-on work. I have partnered with Forward Foundation (supported by Arts Council England) to bid for money to fund a novel poetry show / arts evaluation lab at festivals in the UK in 2026. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | British Arts Festivals Association |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Festival as Form presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Report presentation and poetry performances at historic performance venue in London, 17 November 2023. Audiences were partly academics / practitioners from the All Borders Blur poetry performance conference at Queen Mary and partly curious poetry public who found the night on Eventbrite. Many did not know the history or importance of festivals to poetry performance and were fascinated by the archive slides. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://allbordersblur.univie.ac.at |
| Description | Festival as Form website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Engagement-focussed research project website, hosting the final report, a film introduction to the project, social media and blogs / diaries from the work-in-progress. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.festivalasform.org |
| Description | Forward Foundation / Arts Council meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dialogue about results showing social impact of poetry at festivals with representatives from the Forward Foundation and Arts Council England. Further funding application to work more closely with Forward on their projects on the social good of poetry will follow. 2024-25: I have partnered with Forward, with ACE's support, and made a formal proposal to Queen Mary's Accelerator scheme for a touring poetry show that is also a discreet arts evaluation laboratory. The aim is to make a 'costed value proposition' for festivals to see the benefits of poetry performance and to test creative ways to evaluate arts experience. Bid submitted February 2025. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Keynote speaker at British Arts Festivals Association conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Talk and film showing to the industry body of festival organisers, 75+ in attendance, followed by round-table discussion of findings about festival's personal and social impact. 1) BAFA's national 'Festivals Mean Business' survey has added a new section to ask about social and personal impact, in order for BAFA to initiate further research for its festivals on their social / personal effects. 2) Formal collaboration with theatre research and leadership group Data Cultural Change (www.dataculturechange) is now in progress to investigate social effect of theatre shows, pending funding application. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.artsfestivals.co.uk/events/conference-for-festivals/ |
| Description | Meeting with Society for Authors |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Initial meeting with the Society of Authors feeding back reports about how festivals pay poets and what poetry stages are doing. They were amazed at the wealth of evidence about the mental health impact of festival poetry, and invited us to present to the Society more formally, bringing in some of our interviewees as witness. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Meetings with Festivals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Two initial meetings with the Festivals who hosted our research. We made presentations based on the participant-led research and summarised our headline data findings, prior to more intensive coding. They were pleased and also surprised: we had found patterns they intuited but had never seen explained or expressed in participants' own language. We discussed their initial reactions and how this kind of data would be useful to them. One festival wanted to work further with us in training festival organisers. The other initially thought evidence of the impact of their festival would be useful in securing Arts Council funding. This is the first of three impact meetings planned. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Photo / Poster exhibition for Festival audiences - WOMAD |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An outdoor photo and poster exhibition over WOMAD 2023 of the most telling photos taken at WOMAD during the Festival research 2022, and a discussion of results. Many festival goers stopped to read and confirm and amplify the headline findings from their own experience; their stories fed into the festival report's final text. Some requests to come and do similar research at smaller festivals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Photo / Poster exhibition of Festival as Form - Greenbelt Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outdoor photo and poster exhibition by main stage at the Greenbelt festival, showing photos and results from 2022 research. Many conversations amplifying and confirming headline stories, which fed into final report text. Visits to festival research website spiked in weeks afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Photo and poster exhibition - Wigtown Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outdoor photo and poster exhibition displaying images and results from 2022 research outside main venues at Wigtown Book Festival. Seen and headlines confirmed by hundreds; two interested follow-on conversations with representatives from Events Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Council. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation and discussion for Data Culture Change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Theatre leaders in the Data Culture Change programme, which helps theatres make better use of audience data. We have begun formal follow-on collaboration and funding application preparation to see whether the innovative Festival as Form research methods can be adapted to theatres for evidence of social and personal impact. 2024 update: following a series of meetings we agreed a proposal for the final round of the AHRC Follow-On scheme, submitted July 2024. Unfortunately it was not successful (November 2024). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | http://www.dataculturechange.com |
| Description | Writing for the Festival at the National Writing Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A one-day workshop on 19th September 2023 with the National Centre for Writing in Norwich for prospective authors who wanted to learn how to write and perform for festival audiences. Universally positive feedback for helping them see how festival audiences are cued and improved confidence in their own performance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |