Att snickra ihop en modern musikfestival

GMLSTN JAZZ i ljuset marknadifiering, kulturarv och festivalisering

Abstract

This article analyzes how the Swedish jazz festival GMLSTN JAZZ is brought together and, through the lens of assemblage theory, examines what building blocks are used and how they relate to and negotiate cultural heritage. From an Actornetwork Theory (ANT) perspective, a cultural event like a music festival is understood as the outcome of many processes of assembling and/or networking: a processual ontology that addresses specific practical ways of relating and engaging human and non-human elements into a coherent whole, all equipped with a certain task or an aim. The analysis outlines four key steps in the processes of assembling the festival. In our analysis we also explore how GMLSTN JAZZ deal with the concept of festivalization, which can be described as the act of wrapping ordinary cultural events and happenings into a festival package. Several researchers emphasize a shift of meaning of the word festival, and that festivals now often refer to regular events, perhaps gathered in a festival programme. GMLSTN JAZZ and its transformation from a “classic” music festival to a dispersed event is not an easy festival to follow, nor attend, because it challenges cultural chimeras of what music festivals are and what they can be.