A tsunami of celebration

Anyone involved or interested in the arts cannot avoid festivals; it’s impossible. They have become an intrinsic – almost a backbone – of the arts industry both in the UK and overseas; prevalent, popular and enduring. Caught up in this tsunami of celebration, it is very easy to think that festivals are a new phenomenon. Indeed, most of them are: a twenty year-old festival is considered long-running, but zeroing in like this loses a larger perspective. A particular festival might be new – many particular festivals may be new – but the idea of a festival itself is very old, ancient even.