Cultural Practices in France in 2018

Principal Investigators: Aurélien DJAKOUANE and Emmanuel NEGRIER.

The growth in festival attendance is one of the most notable findings of the latest edition of the survey on French cultural practices. Nineteen percent of French people over the age of 15 report having attended a festival in the past twelve months. That figure was only 16% in 2008 and 8% in 1973. We can therefore safely assume that festivals provide a relevant context for observing—and perhaps participating in—contemporary shifts in people’s relationship to culture. Indeed, the very nature of festivals—their short duration, intensive participation, diverse offerings, and combination of aesthetic experience and social inter
—represents a break from the more conventional way people engage with cultural seasons. Furthermore, the diversity of festivals attracts audiences from varied sociological backgrounds and fosters equally diverse patterns of participation: intense or intermittent, with family or friends, and so on.

This research project aims to explore the sociography of festival audiences and festival participation from three perspectives. First, it will describe the sociological profile of festival-goers, how this profile has evolved over the years, and compare it with other leisure activities and the very nature of festival participation (social and geographic context, practical aspects). The proposed framework is that of an internal comparison within the performing arts in all their diversity (primarily theater, dance, music, circus arts, and street arts). The second perspective of this research focuses on festival-going as a space for transforming one’s relationship to culture. The aim here is to address the question of the value of the festival experience itself and its evolution over time and across the “careers” of festivalgoers. Finally, the third perspective focuses
more specifically on describing the expansion of the realm of negotiation within the contemporary construction of cultural tastes and the role that digital technology now plays within the festival context. These three perspectives unfold in a constant back-and-forth between the PCF survey and our own quantitative and qualitative, local and global surveys of festival audiences.

Against the backdrop of the cancellation of nearly all festivals in 2020, these questions take on special significance. We believe that answering them will shed light on the French people’s attachment to these venues for cultural expression and on some of the changes in their relationship with culture.

Amount: 39,800€

Duration: October 16, 2020, to October 15, 2022