Festivals - Tartu

To insist on a strictly local character of festival in terms of political and social support,
economic impact, targeted audience and artistic talent promises little prospect of
development and growth and entails the risks of stagnation and parochialism. Even a
smaller community will embark on a festival adventure in the hope of attracting visitors
form the outside, some tourists perhaps, and strive to combine cultural uniqueness
with economic opportunities such as additional jobs or outside investments. In
very small places, the major motives for a festival are often predominantly driven by
tourism interests, that is economical rather than artistic objectives. There is nothing
inherently wrong in this duality of purposes as long as those objectives could be held
clearly apart as different developmental dimensions, if all involved reach a consensus
what must be the priority, if they are as stakeholders capable of managing the emerging
tension in contradictory expectations, without enmeshment and crossing agendas,
thus avoiding conflict, blaming and disappointments.
If in a very small place festival brings a boost to normal cultural life, in a larger city,
where much happens through the normal cultural season anyhow, a festival makes
sense only if it brings something unusual and extraordinary that the regular programming
of the venues is not capable of providing. In this situation, an international festival
is not a sheer continuation of the theater season but a peak in a strong regular
programming that seek to surprise and provoke.
The context, as shaped by the place and its cultural infrastructure and program richness,
determines the sense and the function of each festival as it strives to enhance the
local advantages with international elements. Take Venice, a city of remarkably rich
theater history where in the 17 and 18th century several theaters offered every evening
a varied repertory to several thousand viewers. Today, Venice abounds in museums,
churches and architectural splendors but Venetians are forced to go even for a cinema
across the lagoon, to Mestre, and their city offers throughout the year hardly any
quality concerts and theater performance. After much procrastination and criminal
mismanagement, the opera La Fenice, gutted by fire in 1996, was rebuilt and festively
opened in November 2003 - only to be closed for another year of final works. Only
from 2005 one could hope La Fenice will offer 3-4 performances a week. Otherwise,
performing arts are scarcely represented in Venice and therefore the Biennale programming
at the end of every second summer gives a chance to bring special productions
that will match the extraordinary richness of the visual arts exhibit and pool
art connoisseurs as well as tourists. Unfortunately, in the last few editions, Biennale
could not afford more than 2-3 productions, a skeleton festival as it were, not much
to make a point, too short to appeal much to the tourists and too brief to make a real
difference for the inhabitants. After the Biennale, Venice slides back in the performing
arts swamp.
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