Early Twentieth-Century Festival Cultures

Ananisarab, Soudabeh (2024) Early Twentieth-Century Festival Cultures. In: The Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century British Theatre and Performance: Volume One: 1900–1950. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780367487898

Text Festival_Cultures_3_cc.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 8 April 2026. Download (201kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

In the first half of the twentieth century, different models of festival theatre were produced to showcase and nourish varied – and often divided – notions of culture and theatre in the period. On the one hand, festival cultures emerged that emphasised community-oriented performances and aimed for mass audiences. The early years of the twentieth century coincided with the rise of modern pageantry: episodic performances combining drama, procession and dance often occurring periodically in small towns to depict and celebrate a region’s history with the involvement of local communities. Contrastingly, the widening of cultural tourism in the nineteenth century led to the development of other more exclusive festivals imitating European models such as those in Bayreuth and Salzburg. Festivals in Malvern and Glyndebourne were not established to attract local and mass audiences. Instead, they accommodated visiting metropolitan elites able to afford the expenses involved in travelling to the festival’s location and interested in the diet of high culture on offer. This chapter will explore these contrasting models – ‘popular’ and ‘elite’– through their influences, practice and programming.

Item Type:	Book Section
Dates:	Date Event 8 October 2024 Published
Subjects:	CAH19 - language and area studies > CAH19-01 - English studies > CAH19-01-03 - literature in English
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of English and Media
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	16 May 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	16 May 2025 11:30
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16356

Actions (login required)

View Item