Festivals - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

approach, with shows that are very different in terms of type and language. This is the
case, for example, of the great light-music festivals in the summer that involve huge
masses of young people whose motivations, apart from a desire to listen to a certain
type of music or a particular artist, are based on a wish for aggregation, experiences to
share and with which to communicate personal value systems and lifestyles. It should
be remembered that participation is often brought about mainly by the need to “be
there” and experience the event can also be found in festivals that are a far cry from
other great summer events. These might include the Salzburg Festspiele and the theatre
festival in Avignon.
But of course there are not only these great cultural events – festivals able to shift huge
masses of people and create great resonance in the media. Many aspects of dynamism
and revival in the sector actually come from the creation and proliferation of many
“local” initiatives that are closely bound to their particular area and community. This
is a factor of particular significance in places were cultural initiatives are not that numerous
(in the suburbs, in rural areas and in depressed zones, but also in small urban
centres) and festivals are a great opportunity in which more or less latent cultural
interests can find an accessible and gratifying area of confluence.
Even though there are several benefits, the expectations and interests involved in participating
in a festival make it possible to identify some general “family” clusters? Of
motives that lead to participation:
interest and involvement in the festival as a whole
interest and appeal of a show/artist
desire to have a pleasant and rewarding experience
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Concerning these three categories of audience, it is interesting to examine the category
of those who are particularly interested in the festival as a whole. Here we have
people who are interested and involved in the themes and in the overall formula of the
festival. Very often these are a segment of the public who know and trust the artistic
approach of the festival: the fame, history and reputation of the festival are a guarantee
for the show on offer, justifying the choices made. This type of public is particularly
numerous when the festival acts as though it were a brand, in other words when it
manages to make its institutional reputation and image reverberate positively on the
theatrical company or the artist being presented. One of the positive effects of this is
that the public sees a reduction in the “functional risk” connected with the decision
to participate, i.e. that the show will not be worth watching or up to expectations. In
situations of considerable asymmetry of information and uncertainty concerning the
experience that one is going to have (this is especially true of those shows that are
particularly complex or relatively unknown, such as experimental theatre or dance, or
contemporary and experimental music), the reputation, the prestige, and the overall