Innovatia

Entertainment reaching new heights Festivals have long been credited for their spectacle, a pressure which organisers meet by rising to new heights in entertainment each year. A traditional sporting event in Belgium – called the International Bathtub Regatta – con- sists of a fleet of decorated bathtubs float- ing down the river Meuse, propelled only by human force. Each year, participants must find more unique and original ways to decorate and propel their tub. Similarly, participants in Rio’s Carnival event must find more unique and original ways to decorate their floats for the festival’s parade each year. The League of Samba Schools (LIESA) ranked the top school in the 2023 parade as Imperatriz Leopoldinense, who boasted an aerospace-themed float complete with hot air balloons and a da-Vincian flying machine. Launched in 1998, the Boryeong Mud Festival innovates in entertainment activities for its attendees. The festival celebrates the Boryeong mud flats with attractions including a mud pool, mud slides, a mud marathon, coloured mud for body painting, a “mud prison”, “mud basket”, and mud skiing competitions.

Innovation is flourishing in the global arts and culture sector, and nowhere is the bloom more apparent than at a festival. Though festivals are credited for their spectacle and organisation, these spaces are also home to the latest innovative practices in the industry. Festival organisers find innovative ways to excite attendees, improve quality of life during the event, and contribute to the arts and culture scene as a whole. THE ART OF FESTIVALS

https://youtu.be/iu-y32Gvn- N4?si=KHfdP9nVeSMU6jYG

International Bathtub Regatta video

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=4uiSN- WkkWW8

Curating a festival is curating a scene When festival organisers list featured acts on their roster, they uplift artists and groups as the idols of their subculture. For the Montreux Jazz Festival, the playbill is a spectrum. Known as an innovative genre of music, jazz embraces a wide array of sounds and welcomes musicians with roots in soul, blues, hip-hop and pop. Edinburgh Fringe Festival pushes back against the prestige curation of arts festivals. After a group of performers was rejected from Edinburgh International Festival, they staged their perfor- mances on the “fringe” of the festival anyway. Now, the official Edinburgh Festival Fringe prides itself on offering “art of every genre” and keep- ing its Festival Fringe Society from vetting the programme. Parades for specific communities can also uplift local organisations as beacons of trust for community members. Organisations who sent processions to the Sydney Mardi Gras present themselves as safe havens for LGBTQ+ people. Festival curation can thus impact groups in sig- nificant ways.

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Znbk- CAmxxL

Boryeong Mud Festival video

Bringing ancient festivity into the modern day Many festivals have ancient, religious or spiritual, origins. Semana Santa festival refers to Holy Week in Spain, when Catholic religious brotherhoods perform penance processions on the street. While this event remains largely unchanged in time, some religious practices have widened in appeal to non-religious festivalgoers. Holi Festival celebrates the love of the god Radha and Krishna, as well as the victory of Vishnu as Narasimha Narayana over Hiranyakashipu, in Hindu tradition. However, it has also been “Festivals are full of spectacle and celebration, they are also home to some of the latest innovation practices.”

Edinburgh Fringe Festival video

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Znbk- CAmxxL

Montreux Jazz Festival video

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=bz51_eX- mutI

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=JRLswo_ qFyU

Rio Carnival video

Mardi Gras video

INNOVATIA

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INNOVATIA

| Art & Culture

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