HYBRID FESTIVALS: CHALLENGES FACING CRACOW’S FESTIVAL SCENE DURING THE PANDEMIC
HYBRID FESTIVALS: CHALLENGES FACING CRACOW’S FESTIVAL SCENE DURING THE PANDEMIC

Summary/Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to show the strategies of dealing with the pandemic circumstances chosen by three of the city’s festivals: EtnoKraków/Crossroads, Sacrum Profanum, and Unsound. Emerging from their diverse approaches is a new hybrid festival formula, which brings with it brand new challenges. These include: new models of interaction between organisers, artists, and audiences; reorganisation of festival space; new patterns of audience accessibility and new forms of exclusion/openness; opportunities and barriers for (virtual) cultural exchange; and finally, a recalibration and blurring of the public and private dimensions brought about by the new types of festival experience. Indeed, it could even be argued that the live event sector is facing significant change in the very concept of “liveness”. The analysis is based both on existing data concerning processes of music festival production and consumption (press articles, reviews, and reports) and semi-structured interviews with artistic directors, managers and producers of the selected festivals, held in 2020/2021.

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