ABSTRACT

Festivals represent a vital part of human society, and they have done so for millennia. The history of festivals is likely to go far back into the past, long before the written history of civilisations began. The desire to mark particular occasions, such as equinoxes, solstices and harvests, with communal expressions of feelings has been around since the Neolithic times (Biaett 2017) and continues to this day. Festivals traditionally allowed respite from hard work and mundane daily life, injecting a certain amount of socialising, relaxation and rejuvenation into what Hobbes argued might otherwise be the solitary, nasty, brutish and short existence of many peoples throughout history. In recent times, the importance and number of festivals has increased, primarily in tandem with the increasing importance placed on festivals (and other events) as opportunities for increased tourism, branding and economic development. Boorstin (1961) refers to these as pseudo-events, but regardless of where you stand on the authenticity and effectiveness of such economically and politically motivated festivals, it is fair to say that they are booming and as such are deserving of significant research attention.