Edinburgh Napier University

Festival Sustainability Symposium

Edinburgh Napier University, Thursday 29 June 2023

Craiglockhart Campus

Parallel session abstracts: afternoon

• Session 2A: Edinburgh Science and friends
• Session 2B: Festivals and community
• Session 2C: Festivals and the environment

Session 2A: Edinburgh Science and friends

Chair: Prof. Anna Leask

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Sustainability toolkit for festival managers

• Prof. Jane Ali-Knight, Edinburgh Napier University
• Dr Gary Kerr, Edinburgh Napier University

   

  This toolkit emerged as part of the Cultura Circular (Circular Culture) programme, a British Council initiative in Mexico focused on promoting a culture of sustainability in the festival sector. The programme envisioned a plan to promote artistic cooperation and exchange between Mexico and the UK, as well as a training module specializing in environmental sustainability for an emerging network of Mexican festivals. This opportunity helped us recognize the urgency of addressing climate change within our local context with a focus on cultural festival and events management in the United Kingdom. The toolkit was created in order to accompany professionals working on producing and promoting cultural festivals (directors, producers, promoters, operational teams, people in charge of communication and logistics, volunteers, as well as technicians, among others) who seek to embed sustainable practices in the delivery of their festival.

   

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  Designing a trial for sharing equipment between the Edinburgh Festivals

   

• Mary Michel, Ostrero

   

  Sharing resources between cultural organisations is a practical way of embedding sustainability. It leads to decreased use of virgin materials and energy; diverts “waste” from landfill; saves on storage costs; promotes a culture of sharing between organisations; and leads us to rethink how and why we design, make, use and dispose of materials.

   

  This talk presents findings from a piece of recently completed research carried out by Ostrero on behalf of ARMS (Arts Resource Management Scotland) into sharing resources across creative organisations in Scotland; and the design of a trial that is currently ongoing into sharing resources between three of Edinburgh’s Festivals, commissioned by Edinburgh Science.

   

  The talk will consider the benefits of such a system and the barriers to implementation. While the idea sounds simple, it requires an enormous mindset change, as well as a shift in the way budgets are set, objects are cared for and people’s time and skill are valued. So how can these underlying habits and perceptions shift to enable more sustainable behaviour - and what other behaviours might this encourage?

   

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Communicating the Climate through Festivals

• Stephanie Maia, Edinburgh Science
• Emily Stone, Edinburgh Science

   

  Since the first Edinburgh Science Festival in 1989, Edinburgh Science have been Programming for the Planet. The organisation’s ethos is to help people see the relevance of science to their everyday lives. Increasingly this means helping people to respond to the climate emergency - practically and emotionally. As well as the science festival, Edinburgh Science also delivers a programme of engaging science shows and workshops in primary schools Scotland-wide, runs Careers Hive connecting sS2 pupils to jobs of the future, and has recently developed a climate workstream which includes the NetZeroToolkit, empowering small organisations to reduce their environmental impact through educating them on how to do so. They realise the influential power that festivals have in educating audiences about sustainability and their commitment to doing so across all programmes has led to them seeking out, and sharing, best practice in climate communications.

   

  Stephanie Maia is a Communications Officer specialising in climate communications. In 2022 she took the Media Trust’s Communicating the Climate course where she learned from experts such as George Marshall of Climate Outreach. With the knowledge gained on this course she developed Edinburgh Science’s Climate Communications strategy, tying positive and empowering communications through the organisation’s work.  

   

  Emily Stone is Climate & Sustainability Business Development Manager, leading on Edinburgh Science’s Climate workstream which comprises the NetZeroToolkit, Climate Co-Lab and wider organisational climate communications activity.

   

  Session 2B: Festivals and community

  Chair: Prof. Lynn Minnaert

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  Mapping community engagement with the festival city through creative and participative methods

   

• Dr Louise Todd, Edinburgh Napier University

   

  I will present details of two interdisciplinary and collaborative research studies that used creative and participative methods within a public engagement methodology. Both aimed to gain an understanding of community stakeholders’ engagement with Edinburgh as the self-named world’s leading festival city (Gold & Gold, 2020). The festival city title is a recognised destination branding strategy (Richards 2017), pointing to a lively urban setting where collective and experiential consumption of events are encouraged (Dooghe, 2005). With its first festivals emerging in 1947, Edinburgh has a long and recognised history of staging cultural internationalism through its festivals (Jamieson & Todd, 2022). Today, eleven city-based festivals take place annually, to the point of eternal festivalisation (Smith, 2016), and collectively these form the Festivals Edinburgh strategic brand umbrella. Framed by recent media and community narratives around inclusion, access, and use of urban space in Edinburgh (McGillivray, Guillard & Reid 2020), both of my studies attempted to ‘map’ how secondary community stakeholder groups (Todd, Leask & Ensor, 2017) engage with the city’s festivals sector. Firstly, I will discuss a study that explored visual digital and analogue mapping produced by management and community stakeholders to reveal semiotics of Edinburgh’s festival city place-myth (Todd, 2022). I will then discuss aspects of an online peripatetic mapping study undertaken with Edinburgh residents. Outcomes from this were the development of a geolocated sonic map and online walking event. I will conclude by reflecting upon the potential of participative and creative methods in engaging communities and other actors in festival city settings.

   

  References

  Dooghe, D. (2005). Festival City, Rotterdam. In: C. Newbold, C. Maughan, J. Jordan, and F. Bianchini (Eds). Focus on festivals: contemporary European case studies and perspectives. Goodfellow Publisher Limited, 2627.

  Gold, J. and Gold, M. (2020). Festival cities-culture planning and urban life. Routledge.

  Jamieson, K. and Todd, L. (2022). ‘Negotiating privileged networks and exclusive mobilities: The case for a Deaf festival in Scotland’s festival city’. Annals of Leisure Research, pp.1-18.

  McGillivray, D., Guillard, S., and Reid, E. (2020). Urban connective action: The case of events hosted in public space. Urban Planning, 5(4), 252.

  Richards, G. (2017). Emerging models of the eventful city. Event management .21, no. 5: 533-543.

  Smith, A. (2016). Events in the City: Using Public Spaces as Event Venues. Abingdon: Routledge.

  Todd, L. (2022). Semiotics of Edinburgh’s festival city place-myth: management and community stakeholders’ visual representations of festival spaces. In: A. Smith, G. Osborn and G. Vodicka (Eds.): Festivals and the City: the contested geographies of urban events. University of Westminster Press.

  Todd, L., Leask, A., and Ensor, J. (2017). Understanding primary stakeholders' multiple roles in hallmark event tourism management. Tourism Management, 59, 494-509.

   

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  Performing and Sustaining the Transitional Power of Edinburgh’s first Deaf Festival

   

• Kirstie Jamieson, Edinburgh Napier University
• Marta Discepoli
• Philip Gerrard
• Jamie Rea 

   

  The Convention of the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage (2003) and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression (2005) make way for important connections to heritage, language and experience, which are crucially identity-affirming in the Deaf community. This paper critically reflects upon Edinburgh’s first Deaf Festival (2022) and its potential to performatively pluralise Deaf identity through a programme of theatre, film, comedy and art.

   

  This paper critically considers the transitional power of intangible cultural heritage through Edinburgh’s first Deaf Festival,  both at the point of production and consumption. In so doing, it explores the festival as a means of 1) extending cultural recognition of Deaf identity,  2) recasting Edinburgh’s public spaces as Deaf space, 3) welcoming international deaf visitors and artists, and 4) future-making deaf heritage relations and opportunities. The paper contributes to a growing body of work that aligns festivals with radical inclusivity, transition, transformation and social justice.

   

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  Music for all at the Dunard Centre: Problematising new arts and cultural venues as drivers of social sustainability in festival cities of the future

   

• Dr Sarah Snell, Edinburgh Napier University
• Dr Ivana Rihova

   

  Cities are under growing pressure to address the challenge of supporting more inclusive and sustainable communities in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal no. 11 and other sustainability agendas. While festivalisation and urban festivity have been shown to enable the development of social and cultural capital and social cohesion in host communities, these processes have also been criticised as being exclusive and egalitarian in some urban contexts. There continues to be a greater need to understand how festivals shape future cities, and in particular, how they enable the achievement of sustainability goals through community participation. Our research project focuses on exploring community participation specifically in the context of planning and development of new arts and cultural venues in festival cities. Looking at the case study of the Dunard Centre within Edinburgh’s World Heritage city centre, the study aims to problematise new arts and cultural venues as drivers for sustainable development in festival cities and to understand how the development affects social sustainability and the surrounding communities.

   

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  Festivity and inclusivity: Celebrating Latin American London in Finsbury Park [film]

   

• Prof. Andrew Smith, University of Westminster

This is a film presentation, drawing from events from Latin American communities around Finsbury Park, London.

Session 2C: Festivals and the environment

Chair: Dr Constantia Anastasiadou

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The Boomtown Fair Chapter 11 Alternate Reality Game: a micro level response to the climate crisis

• Clare Mackay, University of the West of England
• Ed Little, University of the West of England

   

  For Boomtown Fair: Chapter 11, the festival organisers sought to communicate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2018 warning that there is limited time to mitigate climate change (United Nations, n.d.) to festivalgoers engaging in the festival's alternate reality game (ARG).  

   

  Having gained insight into the strategic design of the alternate reality game via an unstructured interview with the festival's Creative Director and Sustainability Officer, participant observation was conducted to understand how the festival was communicating their call to action to festivalgoers via the ARG, and if - and how - this core message was being received.

   

  The insight gained from the qualitative research was used to develop a post-festival questionnaire which was sent to all festivalgoers who attended Boomtown Fair Chapter 11.

   

  The quantitative findings reveal that ARG players received the core message that Boomtown Fair sought to communicate.  This call to action was impactful as players report that their environmental awareness increased because of attending the festival and agree that they want to adopt more pro-environmental behaviours since attending.

   

  Our findings highlight the potential and effectiveness of creative forms of communicating for educating festivalgoers on the need for climate action to encourage pro-environmental behaviours.

   

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  Boomtown Fair: The Gathering and Festivalgoers’ Environmentally Responsible Behaviours

   

• Clare Mackay, University of the West of England
• Ed Little, University of the West of England

   

  Given the attitude-behaviour gap, our current research seeks to build on our 2019 research by attempting to address the attitude-behaviour gap through a three-phase study allowing us to compare Boomtown Fair: The Gathering festivalgoers' pre-festival, post-festival, and six-months post-festival pro-environmental behaviours to determine whether the festival's social marketing was effective in influencing festivalgoers to adopt more pro-environmental behaviours.

   

  As van der Werff, Steg and Keiser (2013) found that environmental self-identity influences environmentally responsible behaviours via the mediation of obligation-based motivation, we also examined self-identity and obligation-based motivation in relation to the environmentally responsible behaviours of the festivalgoers.

   

  Though there is no significant change between festivalgoers' pre- and post-festival behaviours, this can perhaps be attributed to the festival's limited resources at the time of The Gathering which was staged during the sector's post-Covid recovery.

   

  The findings do however reveal that there is a strong and significant relationship between festivalgoers' environmental self-identity and their pro-environmental behaviours.  Though, in contrast to van der Werff, Steg and Keiser's (2013) findings, obligation-based motivation acts as a moderator rather than a mediator of the relationship between festivalgoers' environmental self-identity and their pro-environmental behaviours.  Boomtown Fair's social marketing is weakly but significantly correlated with festivalgoers' environmental self-identity, obligation-based motivation, and pro-environmental behaviours and each of these relationships are similar in strength.

   

  Given the strong relationship that exists between environmental self-identity and pro-environmental behaviours, environmental self-identity was examined in relation to different pro-environmental behaviours.  The analysis reveals that there is a strong relationship between Boomtown Fair: The Gathering festivalgoers' environmental self-identity and their purchasing behaviours.  The relationship between their environmental self-identity and pro-environmental behaviours becomes weaker and increasingly so in relation to recycling, energy use, and their eating habits.  Despite the relationship between festivalgoers' environmental self-identity and their pro-environmental behaviours, no relationship exists between festivalgoers' environmental self-identity and their transport choices.  Instead, festivalgoers' choice of transport is influenced by their finances and the distance they need to travel.  These findings are valuable for festivals seeking to influence festivalgoers’ behaviour to contribute to environmental sustainability.

   

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  Cultural Events and Festivals Sustainability in Urban Public Spaces: A Systematic Literature Review

   

• Luigi Cernigliaro, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Sustainability Management Department, Pisa

   

  Purpose – This systematic literature review aims to identify and examine contemporary scholarly debates and emerging trends in the research on cultural events and festivals’ sustainability in urban public spaces. By critically assessing these debates in the context of the priorities identified by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) of the United Nations, I formulate the following research question: what contribution do urban cultural events and festivals make to the transition process towards a more sustainable global scenario?

   

  Methodology/approach – On this premise, I developed the Systematic Literature Review protocol in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. I run a search algorithm by using the SCOPUS database. I then set the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the 430 screened articles based on the analysis of titles and abstract, eventually undertaking the full text screening of the selected ones. I will finally perform a content analysis to identify a series of qualitative and quantitative research opportunities connected with the SDGs and the NUA targets.

   

  The purpose of my contribution to the symposium will be two-fold:

  1. To present my current work as a PhD student in Sustainability Management at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, focussing on the steps taken in the Systematic Literature Review.
  2. To share and develop ideas in a friendly and stimulating environment, by receiving critical feedback about my work from both a theoretical and methodological standpoint.

   

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  An investigation into food waste at music festivals

   

• Emma Douglas, Manchester Metropolitan University

During the last decade food has gone from being available in abundance to shortages caused by the global pandemic and extreme weather. Our relationship with food has also changed as individuals’ awareness of the impact of food choices (what is eaten, how it is prepared and what to do with leftovers). This is more prevalent due to crisis such as the cost-of-living increases and the impacts of climate change. Festivals are affected by these problems and are also part of the problem. Festivals provide cuisines from around the world and festivalgoers bring their own food supplies to keep the cost of attending down.

Food waste impacts on the environment through the release of methane into the atmosphere. Annually, 400 tonnes of food waste from festivals are ending up in landfill. This is unethical and immoral considering the number of people globally living in food poverty. In 2018 8^th Plate salvaged 12 tonnes of surplus food creating over 28,000 meals.

For this research ethnographic study was conducted with 10 households that were attending one of four festivals in the north of England during the summer of 2019. The households also kept photographic diaries of food consumed at home and while at a festival.  The PhD utilises practice theory to reflect on the mundane task of providing food for the family in the home and while at a festival. Jaimangal (2010) describes festivals as a liminal space where attendees break with norms and traditions and so far, a comparison in food waste between domestic and festivals spheres has not been studied. This research will extend knowledge of how families plan, prepare, consume, and dispose of food in the domestic and leisure environment to provide awareness of reducing food waste at festivals.

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