Musicology No. 35, Call for Papers: Music Festivals

Festivals belong to the corpus of themes that have received proportionately large attention in musicology and ethnomusicology, as well as other humanities and social sciences, but are, nevertheless, always stimulating for new research as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. On this occasion, we invite the authors to focus their attention on the factors of reshaping the festivals as live organisms, to enlighten the relations with industries, especially the music industry, but also more broadly – creative industries, tourism, as well as identity, economic and socio-cultural politics. We want to encourage the research of music festivals as (g)local phenomena and elements of cultural ecosystems. This approach is possible and necessary considering both earlier and contemporary festivals.

Considering the actual engagements on the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage globally, we encourage critical and constructive reflections on the role of festivals in that regard, as well as the relation between festivals and tradition in the broadest sense – influence on the (de)canonisation of practices, creativity and innovation, and commodification of music and commercialisation of musicking.

Additionally, we direct future authors' attention to the relationship of festivals and scholars from the perspective of applied sciences to the effects that festival research has on the concepts, programmes and realisations of these kinds of events, and to the role that scientists have in boards, organisational teams and other bodies of festivals as cultural institutions. With those propositions mentioned above, we strive to encourage and not limit the inventiveness of festival researchers, to incite the broadening of focus with decentralisation of narrative and illumination of local scenes, and to stimulate reflections of global currents on local/national festival experiences.

Deadline for paper submission: September 1, 2023.

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