STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
As we have seen, in eastern Europe audiences tend to be distinctly younger and female.
Logically, they are generally students and graduates (in Poznan 64% of respondents were
trainees or students). That is also where we find the largest audience of senior executives and
the liberal professions (18% in Poznan and Sibiu). In western Europe the distribution of socioprofessional
groups in the audiences reflects the actual composition of the population of the
town in which the festival takes place. Cognac, for example, is marked by a high proportion of
retired people and the presence of company directors, whilst Namur has a high number of
employees and intermediate professions. A basic trend emerges, however, as in eastern Europe.
High-level socio-professional groups are over-represented in comparison with the national
averages. On average over the seven countries, 17% of respondents were company directors,
managers or senior professionals; 7% had an intermediate profession and 18% were employees
or worked in the services sector. That over-representation of high socio-professional groups
logically corresponds to higher than average educational qualifications. Although it is difficult
to equate the declared levels of study, the level of those questioned was ‘distinctly higher than
the averages in the European Union of 25 (available figures for 2003)’ 350 . The strong presence
of young people, especially in eastern Europe, is the logical consequence of that strong trend. In
western Europe the level of education remains relatively high in spite of the lower presence of
young people. On average 49% of respondents had secondary-level education, 44% higher-level
(university and beyond), whilst a mere 4% only had primary level.
Street arts, like live performance in general, inevitably attract the higher social groups in large
numbers. The Eunetstar study shows the strong influence, on street arts too, of factors identified
as determining for cultural practices (socio-professional group, level of education, etc.). Only a
voluntarist policy could remove that systematic bias.
3.2.3. The non-public
That finding might seem depressing. Yet the figures also reflect the presence of individuals
whose socio-professional profiles would generally make them less interested in cultural
practices. Alongside company directors, teachers and employees, we find students and pupils in
large numbers, as well as 10% of workers and farmers and 4% of pensioners. The latter three
groups are categories usually seen least often in theatres and at cultural events in general. In that
regard, the definition of a ‘popular public’ proposed by Jack Lang, Minister for Culture under
President François Mitterrand, may serve as a point of reference.
A popular public constitutes ‘a sample, a reduced model of the population as a whole, in all its
sociological components’ 351 .
Although we cannot state that the street arts public or audience, as reflected by the available
surveys, is a popular public, we can still assert that it tends to be so and (without
oversimplifying) that it manages to attract population groups not found at other events to attend
live performances. It is true that these socio-professional groups are far less represented than the
national averages. The Straattheater Festival in Ghent attracts 12% of workers and tradesmen,
whilst they account for 20% of the working population in Belgium. So street arts do not fall
entirely outside the basic trend found at European level. Whatever the country, the working
classes remain relatively absent from cultural practices. Yet street arts do better here than other
artistic sectors.
350 Gaber, Floriane (coord.), Les Publics des arts de la rue en Europe, op. cit., p. 4.
351 Lang, Jack, L’Etat et le théâtre, Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1968, p. 177.
215
PE 375.307