Festivals in Focus

The proliferation of festivals across the world has given birth to a new academic field: festival studies. Before his premature death Dragan Klaic was the greatest early authority of this discipline. Festivals in Focus contains the last essays which Klaic composed as introductory chapters for a collected volume on festivals. The four essays display the author’s sharp critical ability and raise stimulating questions about cultural festivals not just in Europe but worldwide. Klaic succinctly addresses the historical evolution of festivals, as well as their types, contents and settings.

The volume includes an introduction by Christopher Maughan and Franco Bianchini, an essay on the future of festivals by Bernard Faivre d’Acier, the long-time director of the trend-setting Festival d’Avignon, and appreciations of Klaic by Krzysztof Czyżewski, Anne-Marie Autissier, Lucy Neal and Rose Fenton.