Festivals are a unique way of celebrating and sharing different communities and groups’ cultures, customs, and creations. They allow artists, audiences, festival staff, and critics to expand their knowledge and appreciation of others, while developing creative skills and improving hosting cities’ image on the global scale. Music may be considered an especially interesting art form in this regard, being a “universal language” that engages an individual fully, including their body and soul, simultaneously creating a specific sense of community with every other audience member. Yet, whereas music festivals have the potential to connect people and foster tolerance, they may also reproduce inequalities and social exclusion.

During the conference the socio-cultural role of music festivals shall be discussed from diverse academic and expert viewpoints. Most importantly, we want to focus on these events as spaces of encounters between individuals and cultures. Additionally, there will be discussed the formation and maintenance of communities surrounding music festivals, as well as their engagement in socio-political issues. Finally, it cannot be denied that the pandemic crisis of 2020-2021 has impacted and presumably will continue to impact the way these events are organized, which is why it is important to share ideas on how to deal with those changes.

 We ask everyone interested to submit proposals of their presentations in English (up to 300 words) to the e-mail: FestiversitiesPL@gmail.com

The conference is organised within the HERA - funded project “European Music Festivals, Public Spaces, and Cultural Diversity” (2019-2022), www.festiversities.org

For more details see: Spaces-of-Diversity-Conference-Call-for-papers.pdf (uj.edu.pl)