Macrofestivals: the black hole of music

Highlights: Macrofestivals are not events that question the rules of capitalism. Rather, they celebrate and accelerate them. If music festivals are cultural events, we should demand that they enrich the territory in other ways. We need a festival model that does not foster a stressful relationship with the territory, but nourishes it. That does not exploit its workers with shitty salaries and strenuous hours, but that it encourages a quality occupation. A festival that encourages cooperation, where musicians feel fulfilled and that helps them to connect with their audience.

Macrofestivals have become the black hole of music, a phenomenon of universal scope that not only engulfs art itself, but also absorbs and crushes...

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Macrofestivals have become the black hole of music, a phenomenon of universal scope that not only engulfs art itself, but also absorbs and shreds everything within its reach: artists and promoters, labor and consumer rights, concert halls and public budgets, neighborhoods and media.

A black hole whose turbocapitalist and extractivist energy devours resources in an unbridled way while promoting an irrational hyper-consumerism, which shoots up prices and accentuates the gaps in access to culture, which condenses music consumption in a few days until it overflows human capacity and concentrates the business in fewer and fewer hands, which generates excessive flows of tourists and reduces music to a secondary element. , when not anecdotal. And, of course, the more matter those black holes gobble up, the more their gravitational field grows and the harder it is to dodge their influence. Where some macrofestivals tread, the grass does not grow back.

In the TV3 report Alcarràs, the other harvest, a young farmer from the province of Lleida lamented the living conditions of those who cultivated the land in the face of the growing monopoly of the large distributors of fruit and vegetables. Cornered by a trend that seemed unstoppable, he launched a crushing question: "What do we want: a richer or richer territory in the territory?" Agriculture and culture: same energy.

The macrofestivals centrifuge and crush in a matter of hours the musical harvest of a whole year and consume the resources that have taken twelve months to achieve. But the composting they could generate does not fertilize the territory. Those esplanades of cement or sand will be muted the rest of the year (unless another macro event arrives). They will have embraced a bacchanal of extractivist capitalism behind which, very often, only an immense cultural crater will remain. No surprise: macrofestivals are not events that question the rules of capitalism. Rather, they celebrate and accelerate them.

Macrofestivals do not function as sprinklers that irrigate the ground, but as funnels of nutrients: of subsidies, of sponsorships, of artists, of musical genres, of qualified professionals, of materials, of young bookers who could be renewing the sector but who will end up swallowed by their centrifugal force, of groups that compete with each other. for the attention of an audience that previously shared... Planting at other times of the year keeps the subsoil awake. Planting in other areas of the geography prevents the land from being exhausted. There is a substantial difference between cultivating a territory and squeezing it until it is sterile. But the dynamics of macrofestivals are usually the second.

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We have heard for decades about international festivals, multitudinous festivals, exclusive festivals, strategic festivals... We are already starting to hear about innovative festivals, sustainable festivals, smart festivals, boutique festivals... Perhaps the time has come to put aside so much talk that perpetuates the same idea and pose a frontal antithesis to this potentially predatory macro-event model. How about a fertile festival? If music festivals are cultural events and, therefore, have to generate more than economic income, we should demand that they enrich the territory in other ways: by fertilizing it with nutrients so that in its absence it could continue to generate, host and strengthen cultural practices. Yes, yes, but what would a fertile festival look like? What characteristics would identify it? What would it look like?

We need a festival model from which cultural activity grows uncontrollably, like plants in the forest.

Imagine, for example, a festival that does not crush the territory, but nourishes it; that does not foster a stressful relationship with music, but digestible; that articulates communities, and not just accumulates masses of people; that does not disturb the neighborhood, but arouses their interest; that it does not exploit its protagonists by offering them to play in exchange for media exposure, but helps them to connect with their audience; That it does not exploit its workers with shitty salaries and strenuous hours, but that it encourages a quality occupation.

A fairer and less pyramidal festival, where musicians feel fulfilled and not treated as merchandise, that encourages cooperation and not competition; that it waters, but does not flood; that promotes the encounter between artists and not rivalry; that does not lead the public to an unbridled consumption, but conscious; that puts comfort before productivity; to establish alliances with the cultural agents of the territory, instead of annihilating them; to integrate into the territory, instead of landing as a paratrooper; to develop a critical spirit among its audience, instead of chasing only its pocket; to promote diversity, not cloning; that cultivates an inclusive and non-exclusive environment, an environment where alcohol and drugs have no more importance than music, an environment in which people of all ages can feel at ease.

In a country where music has always been synonymous with partying and where culture has never had a healthy and capillary social fit, it is hard to imagine fertile festivals

A festival in which not only prices rise, but also salaries; that enriches cultural workers, and not only hotels and restaurants, and that, if the standard of living of the city is improved, it improves that of all and not that of only a few. A festival from which cultural activity grows uncontrollably, like those forests where shrubs, bushes and herbaceous of all species sprout, entangle and feed for centuries in an interdependent and fruitful relationship that will not demand the supervision of a superior being, that plenipotentiary achiever, who is sometimes the organizer of the macrofestival, and others, the councilor of Fiestas.

That festival doesn't exist, of course. Because a festival can be predatory for three reasons and fertile for two others. It can squeeze public resources excessively and, in parallel, foster an inclusive environment. It can be militantly localist and exploit its workers. It can allocate all its profits to social entities and be a showcase to whitewash the image and prestige of a bank. You may have a careful caching policy with emerging artists, but be ecologically devastating. You can program with sensitivity to gender diversity and disengage from social status. You can renounce overcrowding, but continue to propose marathon and strenuous days.

Whether the fertilizing strategies of a festival end up dominating and imposing itself on its predatory tendency depends mainly on the organizers of the event, but also on administrations that until now have only been concerned with the economic impact, and not with the social, cultural and environmental impact. The only way to gauge whether a macrofestival is beneficial in global terms for a municipality is to evaluate all these conditions. Only then will its inhabitants be able to decide whether or not it is convenient for them to host such an event. Because in a free market where administrations tend to turn a blind eye, any improvement will also go through the critical attitude of society; And that includes both those who attend festivals and those who don't. And given everything that happened in 2022, it seems that the public has a lot of desire for the festival, yes, but less and less desire to be scammed or mistreated.

The public is increasingly critical, the neighborhood is increasingly organized and artists demand respect in an increasingly visible way.

Many of the discomforts and shortcomings that festivals have developed in Spain come from their almost direct links with the circuit of macroconcerts of patron saint festivities. Perhaps in this country where music has always been synonymous with celebration and where culture has never had a healthy and capillary social fit, it is harder to imagine fertile festivals. It also doesn't help that, in most cases, festivals are clone models that replicate successes and errors automatically and unconsciously. Perhaps the same model of three-day marathon macrofestival modeled on English should be challenged. A model implemented in a country that looks nothing like the United Kingdom: neither in cultural habits, nor in figures of attendance at concerts nor in climatology.

There are symptoms of exhaustion and desire for change, no doubt. The public is increasingly critical, the neighborhood is increasingly organized and artists demand respect more and more visibly. Some institutions are also beginning to show their concern about the runaway growth of festivals. For all these reasons, the time has come to defend tooth and nail, as music lovers and taxpayers, the culture of proximity, the projects that fertilize the territory, and claim those economic and logistical supports that have been so happily granted to desertifying macro events. It is time to abandon the self-sacrificing attitude and put cultural self-defense into practice.

Fortunately, there are more and more promoters who design more reasonable and less conflictive models. With so many festivals spread across the geography, it is impossible not to find groups that dodge the most harmful inertia in the sector. Some have already been mentioned throughout these pages. Others I have not found the time to quote. Some I have not yet visited, although they have told me wonders about them. Perhaps there are many more planning responsible strategies. It would be good material for another book: a guide to fertile and fully enjoyable festivals with which to learn how to organize more fertile and fully enjoyable festivals.