The Ferrara Busker’s Festival is one of the early events within the ‘festivalization’ process, surely one of the first and most important festivals of street music. This chapter reconstructs its evolution from the first edition in 1988 up to 2000, using a broad perspective on strategic change. What is fascinating in this case, at a general level, is the dialectic between designed and emerging elements, ending up in a situation of continuity with significant elements of transformation, between a variety of constituents. The main focus of the chapter however is the analysis of artists, showing a variety of profiles and motivations, from ‘pure’ buskers to professional musicians or even amateurs that take this opportunity once in a while to experiment, to jam with other musicians, or just for fun. More than a buskers’ festival, it is a festival of busking: indeed, we investigate the unusual relation between the festival in itself, busking as such, and busking at a festival. The plurality of meanings involved requires a considerable effort of sense making, in a situation of opaque, hidden, latent or simply tacit values that people (and especially artists) attach to the event. Such ambiguity, far from causing problems, seems to be the condition that helps the variety of meanings and motivations of different constituents to converge.
Ferrara Buskers Festival (1998–2001): Design, Emerging Meanings and Sense Making
Zan L.;Masino G.
2022
Abstract
The Ferrara Busker’s Festival is one of the early events within the ‘festivalization’ process, surely one of the first and most important festivals of street music. This chapter reconstructs its evolution from the first edition in 1988 up to 2000, using a broad perspective on strategic change. What is fascinating in this case, at a general level, is the dialectic between designed and emerging elements, ending up in a situation of continuity with significant elements of transformation, between a variety of constituents. The main focus of the chapter however is the analysis of artists, showing a variety of profiles and motivations, from ‘pure’ buskers to professional musicians or even amateurs that take this opportunity once in a while to experiment, to jam with other musicians, or just for fun. More than a buskers’ festival, it is a festival of busking: indeed, we investigate the unusual relation between the festival in itself, busking as such, and busking at a festival. The plurality of meanings involved requires a considerable effort of sense making, in a situation of opaque, hidden, latent or simply tacit values that people (and especially artists) attach to the event. Such ambiguity, far from causing problems, seems to be the condition that helps the variety of meanings and motivations of different constituents to converge.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
