Music Festivals as Global Events: The Case of Major Polish Festivals
Music Festivals as Global Events: The Case of Major Polish Festivals

Author(s): Franciszek Czech
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Sociology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: globalisation; mega-festivals; Open’er Festival; Orange Warsaw Festival; Pol’and’Rock Festival; post-communism
Summary/Abstract: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Poland went through a political and economic transition, which included greater openness to global culture. This had an impact on music festivals, which started to involve globally recognised artists, as well as general blueprints of organizing such events. The article has two complementary objectives. Firstly, to explore the relationship between music festivals and globalisation processes. Secondly, to exemplify how the major music festivals in Poland mirror wider social and political changes that took place in this country after the fall of the communist regime. In the first part of the article, the concept of globalisation and its historical context, as well as the democratic transformation in Poland after 1989, are discussed. In the second part, major Polish music festivals (with audiences of over 40,000), namely the Open’er Festival, the Orange Warsaw Festival, and the Pol’and’Rock Festival, are analysed to provide examples of globalisation’s impact on music festivals. The process of globalisation is considered in three different aspects characterizing such events: organisation, artists, and audience.

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