Festival Places: Revitalising Rural AustraliaChris Gibson, John Connell Festivals have burgeoned in rural areas, revitalising old traditions and inventing new reasons to celebrate. How do festivals contribute to tourism, community and a rural sense of belonging? What are their cultural, environmental and economic dimensions? This book answers such questions - featuring contributions from leading geographers, historians, anthropologists, tourism scholars and cultural researchers. It draws on a range of case studies: from the rustic charm of agricultural shows and family circuses to the effervescent festival of Elvis Presley impersonators in Parkes; from wildflower collecting to the cosmopolitan beats of ChillOut, Australia's largest non-metropolitan gay and lesbian festival. Festivals as diverse as youth surfing carnivals, country music musters, Aboriginal gatherings in the remote Australian outback, Scottish highland games and German Christmas celebrations are united in their emphasis on community, conviviality and fun. Chris Gibson is Professor in Human Geography at the University of Wollongong. John Connell is Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney. For well over a decade they have been researching and writing about music, tourism and festivals in Australia and beyond. More recently they were part of a team undertaking Australia's largest ever study of rural festivals, with 480 festivals participating in the research. Insights from that research project feature throughout this book. |
Contents
Part 1 Exploring Rural Festivals | 2 |
Making Festivals Happen | 60 |
Culture Nature and Colonialism | 108 |
Part 4 Reinventing Rurality | 174 |
Part 5 Festival People | 227 |
Family Circuses Festivity and Rural Australia | 229 |
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Aboriginal activities agricultural shows annual attended attract audiences become belonging Brigadoon Bundanoon businesses capital Carnival celebration centre Chapter ChillOut circus clan Connell country music cultural dance Daylesford Daylesford–Hepburn Springs display ecological footprint economic impact emotional entertainment environmental event experience festival organisers Festival visitor festival-goers festival’s Figure flower shows folkie Garma Geographies Gibson Gloucester Gromfest groups Gympie Gympie’s Hepburn Shire heritage host identity Indigenous Interviewed jazz Jazz Festival leaders Lennox Head lesbian lesbian and gay Lobethal Lobethal’s Mapoon Melbourne music festivals Muster nature Parkes participants performance Photo population Queensland Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show regional residents role rural Australia rural communities rural festivals rural idyll Scottish sense sexuality Shire significant SnowFest social Society sound South Wales sporting Surf Carnival survey Sydney tion tourism town traditional transformational leadership turnover Victoria volunteers Waitt Wangaratta Wangaratta Festival weekend Yolngu Yothu Yindi