Image: Goldschmied & Chiari: Where shall we go dancing tonight?
The very word festival is freighted with interest and promise. Of course it’s applied promiscuously to all kinds of events from used tyre sales to produce. I am intrigued by the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, and the Coal Shovelling Festival in Tasmania’s Fingal Valley – but despite ubiquitous usage the word ‘festival’ has not lost its pulling power over centuries and is generally taken to imply stimulation of one sort or another, physical and mental. However most people associate it with performance.
