The translocal fluidity of rural grassroots festivals in the network society

This article explores the role of rural grassroots festivals in place-making processes associated with the network society. It mobilises dialectical notions of fixity and fluidity, continuity and change to produce a translocal perspective that builds on previous conceptual work by Manuel Castells – emphasising the space of flows and the space of places – and Greg Richards – focusing on iterative and pulsar events. From this vantage point the paper analyses how rural festivals are produced through networked performativity in the space of flows, while their cultural and social meanings are deeply embedded and localised in the space of places. Empirically, the current study builds upon six in-depth case studies of grassroots festivals in rural Denmark. The results suggest that peripherally located festivals were more oriented towards the space of flows than their centrally located counterparts. As a whole, findings indicate that the conceptual framework has potential as a valuable device in building a better understanding of the contemporary roles and functions of festivals in society. Simultaneously, the paper raises critical questions for future research about data collection and research ethics.