A transformational festival is a
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...
that espouses a
community-building ethic, and a
value system
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of dif ...
that celebrates life,
personal growth,
social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind.
Social ...
, healthy living, and creative expression.
''Transformational'' alludes both to personal transformation (
self-realization
Self-realization is an expression used in Western psychology, philosophy, and spirituality; and in Indian religions. In the Western understanding, it is the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality" (see ...
) and steering the
transformation of culture Culture change is a term used in public policy making that emphasizes the influence of cultural capital on individual and community behavior. It has been sometimes called repositioning of culture, which means the reconstruction of the cultural conce ...
toward
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
. Some transformational festivals resemble
music festival
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...
s, but are distinguished by such features as seminars, classes,
drum circle
A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range ...
s, ceremonies,
installation art
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
(or other
visual art
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...
), the availability of
whole food
Natural food and all-natural food are terms in food labeling and marketing with several definitions, often implying foods that are not manufactured by processing. In some countries like the United Kingdom, the term "natural" is defined and regu ...
and
bodywork, and a
Leave No Trace policy.
Transformational festivals are held outdoors, often in remote locations, and are co-created by the participants.
The events are psychedelic inspired, involving
visionary art
Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences.
History
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, first estab ...
, speakers on topics of
entheogen
Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclopedia of Psychoac ...
ic substances, as well as audio and visual entertainment intended to amplify psychedelic experiences.
Transformational festivals exhibit features commonly found in cults and
new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...
s. The events are characterized by heightened
transpersonalism, collective
ecstasis
Ecstasy (from the Ancient Greek ἔκστασις ''ekstasis'', "to be or stand outside oneself, a removal to elsewhere" from ''ek-'' "out," and ''stasis'' "a stand, or a standoff of forces") is a term used in existential philosophy to mean "outs ...
,
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
n narratives, and community allegiance. They attract the atypical attendance of a social class characterized by expendable amounts of financial and temporal wealth. Their charismatic deployment of spiritual and entheogenic information emboldened by on-site ecstatic experience closely parallels
religious revivals. Attendees may disengage conservative social norms and identify as an "evolved culture"—a worldview influenced by
millenarian
Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latin , "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarian ...
archetypes
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
of planetary transcendence, and the
evolution of consciousness.
Some examples of transformational festivals are
Boom Festival in Portugal,
Fusion Festival
The Fusion Festival is a music and arts festival with a countercultural character. It takes place at a former military airport called Müritz Airpark in Lärz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in northeastern Germany. The festival name is often depicted ...
in Germany,
Lightning in a Bottle
Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) is an annual music festival in the Central Valley region of California first held in 2006. It is presented by The Do LaB, which seeks to promote sustainability, social cohesion, and creative expression. The Do LaB ...
,
Symbiosis Gathering Symbiosis Gathering is an arts, music, and community gathering that encourages expressive arts, sustainability, and personal development. Symbiosis has also produced a solar eclipse festival in May 2012 at Pyramid Lake of the Paiute Tribe and colla ...
, and
Lucidity in the United States, and
Yaga Gathering
Yaga Gathering is a transformational festival hosted in a clearing in Ežeraitis Forest, at the edge of Spengla Lake in the Varėna District of southern Lithuania. The festival has no corporate sponsors, and is financed by ticket sales. The ...
in Lithuania. The prototypical transformational festival is
Burning Man.
At TEDxVancouver 2010, filmmaker Jeet-Kei Leung presented a
TED Talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
about transformational festivals, and discussed their similarities to
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
festivals. Less than a year after a successful
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign, Jeet-Kei Leung and Akira Chan screened the first installment of their four-part documentary film series, ''The Bloom: A Journey Through Transformational Festivals'' (2013).
A.C. Johner's documentary ''
Electronic Awakening'' (2012) investigates the emergence and origins of the festivals.
See also
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Transformational festival
Counterculture festivals