CEPEL

Festivals in Guadeloupe

A comprehensive approach

In addition to the historical and public health context, the joint request from the DAC of Guadeloupe and the Regional Council of Guadeloupe comes at a crucial moment for research into the festival sector, which reinforces the opportunity for collaboration with the CNRS.

Following the publication of the initial findings of the SoFest! research project, our CNRS team (Aurélien Djakouane and Emmanuel Négrier) was involved in organizing the États Généraux des Festivals (EGF), an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Culture last October 2020.

In late 2020, the organization commissioned us to expand our analyses to include all festivals in artistic sectors that had not previously been included in our research: visual arts, film, literature, storytelling, street arts, etc. Starting in February, our team distributed a questionnaire focusing on festival activity indicators (economics, human resources, programming, etc.), incorporating questions on sustainability and the impact of the health crisis.

In June 2021, the minister officially reaffirmed the mandate to develop a framework for festival monitoring (DOF) capable of bringing together all local initiatives and promoting the harmonization of methods and the long-term use of indicators, under the leadership of the CNRS and France Festivals.

As a reminder, the search SoFest! (190 festivals) and its expansion through the implementation of the festival observation system (1,400 festivals) provides a wealth of unprecedented knowledge that will serve as a comparative framework for all future studies.

*SoFest! describes the social and territorial impact of festivals—that is, their social, economic, artistic, and cultural impact.

This research consisted of six components, the results of which are available here:

https://www.francefestivals.com/

  1. Festival audiences: 26,000 questionnaires processed
  2. Socioeconomic indicators for festivals: 184 organizations
  3. volunteers, 3,500 questionnaires processed
  4. festivals' public-interest partnerships
  5. Social Media Communication at Festivals: An Analysis of 200 Events
  6. an estimate of the economic, social, and artistic losses resulting from the cancellations in 2020

The full set of results is scheduled for publication in November 2021: A. Djakouane, E. Négrier, *Festivals, Territories, and Society*, Paris, DEPS/Presses de Science Po, “Questions de culture” series.

*In 2021, the Festival Observation System (dof) produced an initial classification of festivals based on a sample of 1,400 festivals.

It is based on an online questionnaire (which takes about 20 minutes to complete) distributed to the entire festival sector (performing arts, film, visual arts, literature). This questionnaire generates more than 450 indicators on festival activity: organization, programming, partnerships, budgets, resources, sustainability initiatives, activity during the health crisis, and more.

This initial work resulted in:

  1. A classification of seven types of festivals that illustrates the diversity of the sector, beyond the artistic fields.
  2. A comprehensive analysis of festival operations: economics, human resources, programming, outreach, partnerships, etc.
  3. An Analysis of the Effects of the Health Crisis
  4. An Analysis of Initiatives Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Development

Scientific Rationale for the Partnership

Despite the thematic and geographical scope of our work, the study of the festival scene in our overseas territories remains a blind spot in our

research. Yet we recognize the value of examining the unique characteristics of overseas territories, as we did previously on Réunion Island in 2014 (A. Djakouane, *Une Réunion de publics: Un festival et une saison outre-mer*, Nanterre: Presses Universitaires de Paris Nanterre, 2018). This monographic study, focusing on a single season and festival, highlighted the economic, sociological, and anthropological characteristics of the festival scene on the island. It also developed a research methodology capable of comparing the island’s cultural dynamics and practices with those observed in mainland France. Each overseas territory requires a specific adaptation.

For our research team, the significance of a scientific collaboration with the Regional Council and the DAC of the Ministry of Culture in Guadeloupe stems from four key motivations:

  1. To produce a comprehensive, original analysis of the festival ecosystem across the archipelago: economy, organization, economic impact, contribution to the arts, audiences, etc.
  2. Refine our research tools to make them effective in Guadeloupe.
  3. Develop a comparison that highlights what festival-goers have in common with—and what sets them apart from—the rest of the festival-going world, as observed in France.
  4. To describe in even greater detail the anthropological phenomenon of festival attendance, as well as the contribution of festivals to economic, social, and cultural life; and to share this knowledge with a broad audience.