Stank Face and the Sacred: An Exploration of Free Live Music Events as Vernacular Religion

American society has grown increasingly secular, with more and more young people opting not to attend traditional houses of worship. Many scholars have theorized about what will fill the gap left by organized religion in civic life; some argue that the current capitalist paradigm serves as an adequate proxy, functioning much like religion. My research asked where else the core aspects of religion – religiosity, community, and transcendence – may be found, outside both traditional religious spheres and market interactions. The key research question was: How do communities and individuals produce and reproduce religious spaces and practices in nontraditional, secular settings? I conducted ethnographic interviews and observations of public behavior at several venues that host free live music events (FLMEs) to describe how these spaces function as highly localized houses of worship. My research showed that FLMEs with a regular crowd of attendees do, in fact, serve as religious institutions despite their secular connotations. Beyond this, I have shown that the exchange of music, attention, and gifts in non-commodity contexts enriches social settings, allowing people to connect more deeply. This work ultimately shows the importance of free and regular spaces for community and individual well-being, and establishes the presence of religion in a currently under-researched, vernacular form.