02/09/2021
Abstract
For the past two decades the concept of ‘festival’ has evolved into new connotations on the sociocultural field. This thesis explores these new connotations of ‘festival’ as it develops into a phenomenon of mass culture and industry, i.e., festival business has increased exponentially, as a consequence of a mass consumption and festival related industries. There has been a social effervescence around the transformational festival meme which triggered new perspectives on the cultural sciences scope. This study examines those perspectives along with data analysis to expand social circumstances and cultural frameworks that configure the subjective dispositions and drive the demand for Boom Festival in Portugal. Boomland is Boom Festival’s territory and appears to be both a popular sanctuary and a pilgrimage site for fans of a global movement called psytrance tribe. This alternative movement with origins in the so-called counter-cultural tendencies of the 1960s promotes its hedonistic vibe, a spiritual tendency and a high interest in the trade and consumption of psychedelics. Psytrance, an epiphenomenon of EDMC, is not only the source of Boom Festival but it is the main feature which sets this festival apart from the rest of those on the international circuit. This investigation is about Boomland and the festival itself. It analyses the impact the Boom Festival experience can have on the lives of those who live it. The thesis emphasizes identity modulations associated with the sociological process, i.e., practices and cultural fruition between individuals and groups in contexts of otherness promoted during the event. Simultaneously, it addresses the properties at the festival that can be analyzed as heterotopic transgressive spaces in order to understand how the contexts of temporary suspension and liminality imply a transformative power in the return to everyday life. In addition, it is important to identify neotribalism / heterotopia / ritual process as the key elements to which this thesis is built upon. As a result, it is vital to situate the Boom Festival in the contemporary sociocultural paradigm while keeping track on the impact of digital technology on the anthropological range. The research involved an ethnographic approach, using digital ethnography and auto-ethnography, complemented by semi-directed interviews. The empirical work underlined the three (liminal) moments related to the 2018 edition of Boom Festival – before, during and after the festival –, based on a 20 people discussion/observation group, gathered on the digital platform Facebook, implying fieldwork both in digital and geographic territory.
