Review: Kockel, Ullrich; Clopot, Cristina; Tjarve, Baiba; and Nic Craith, Máiréad (2020) Heritage and Festivals in Europe. Performing Identities. London: Routledge. 213 pp. ISBN: 978-0-367-18676-0

Abstract

Review: Kockel, Ullrich; Clopot, Cristina; Tjarve, Baiba; and Nic Craith, Máiréad (2020) Heritage and Festivals in Europe. Performing Identities. London: Routledge. 213 pp. ISBN: 978-0-367-18676-0. Various conclusions can be drawn from reading this book. However, the most general would probably be that, in relation to cultural heritage, in Europe we are experiencing a period characterised by festivals. This period involves citizens, public managers and researchers. As Valdimar Tr. Hafstein stated, in the interesting 'Afterwords' that conclude the book, cultural heritage and particularly intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are being 'festivalised'. We could interpret this as a corollary of what Guy Debord has already described in La société du spectacle. However, the studies included in this volume show us that the time for postmodernist criticism - which was probably necessary but maybe abused - has passed, and the distance between observers and the observed, between analysts and actors has narrowed and blurred in the twenty-first century