Festival bodies : the corporeality of the contemporary music festival scene in Australia

In this chapter we explore how the embodied experiences enabled or produced through participation in music festivals can create a sense of belonging and identification with a larger music scene, for festival-goers, while also exploring the Australian aspects of these experiences. The embodiment of the festival experience is grounded not only in the sensate dimensions of the physical, biological body, but is also connected and bound to the social and emotional aspects of the festival scene. These emotional, social and physical aspects of experience are all vital elements in festival- goers’ identity formation and allow for affective social connections as well as the development of neo-tribal sociality. By examining the corporeality involved in the experience of the mosh pit, as well as the embodiment of heat, this chapter investigates the relationship between the body and the festival environment.