STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
‘Festivals tend to be rather exposed in the media, closely watched by the professionals,
attractive to the sponsors and funded by the public authorities for reasons that do not always
have much to do with arts and culture’ 335 .
2.2.2. Local presence: relations with local inhabitants
Festivals may sometimes have a real impact on local development. Their influence, whether
regional, national or even international, brings many benefits to the local area. Pride in the fame
of a festival can foster social cohesion and there is no longer any shadow of a doubt that
festivals play a dynamic economic role. By attracting outside visitors, they boost consumption
and may even go so far as to create jobs (albeit temporary ones). Under those circumstances, it
is easy to see why many local councillors and authorities are keen on festivals (especially if they
take place in public spaces).
Apart from their local impact, festivals also have some influence on the type of audience they
reach. Street arts festivals in particular can play a role in urban development policy. As a result
of their siting in a town, they may shift the urban centre of gravity and draw the attention of
locals and visitors to forgotten or abandoned areas. They inspire a new perception of the town
and change its flow during the festival period and perhaps even in the longer term. The question
of the site of the festival, ‘where?’, almost systematically leads to the more crucial question of
the nature of the audiences, ‘who?’.The location of a festival within the urban fabric largely
determines public participation and the target audience. So it is more a question of knowing
what audience to try to reach than of how many people to tempt into the streets. As their
attendance figures make it clear, street arts festivals that offer free events in public spaces are
particularly successful. From the St Patrick’s Day festival in Ireland to the Detmold
Internationales Strassentheater Festival in Bonn (Germany), hundreds of millions of spectators
crowd into the streets.
The local presence of a festival and its relations with the local population are also a major factor
in its longevity. The need to engage with local inhabitants becomes more acute if a festival has
international aspirations. It must foster relations with the local population whilst at the same
time seeking the legitimacy it needs in order to be recognised as an international festival. In so
doing, large festivals can become factors of local development whilst also forming part of the
European artistic landscape they are helping to construct. Several Anglo-Saxon studies lay great
emphasis on the need to establish a link between the festival and the local population, who are
entitled to be the main spectators. In Brighton 336 (UK) measures that involve the local
inhabitants in the festival (Children’s Parade, Carnival Encounter, etc.) play an important role in
engaging with the community. In Ireland 337 the many festivals offering events that are mostly
free are characterised by having both a national presence, with spectators coming from all over
the country, and a strong local economic and social impact. A study 338 conducted by De
Montfort University in Leicester on the economic and social impact of cultural festivals in the
East Midlands emphasises that nearly 70% of people questioned said they were more inclined to
attend other events in future. Festivals therefore produce a number of benefits for the local
population (economic and social impact and effect on cultural practices).
335 Ibid.
336 Sussex Marketing, Brighton Festival 2004, Everyone benefits… A study on the economic and cultural impact of
Brighton Festival upon Brighton and Hove, September 2004.
337 AOIFE , Irish festivals, Irish life. Celebrating the wealth of Ireland’s festivals, an AOIFE (Association of Irish
Festival Performances) report researched and written by Fiona Goh Consulting (www.aoifeonline.com).
338 De Montfort University, Festivals and the creative region. The economic and social benefits of cultural festivals
in the East Midlands, Key findings from a study by De Montfort University, Leicester.
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PE 375.307