Festival spaces, green sensibilities and youth culture

This chapter examines the significance of contemporary music festivals as a means through which young people gain knowledge of eco-political issues. Beginning with a brief overview of how eco-politics has developed as an aspect of the contemporary music festival, early examples being Woodstock and Glastonbury, the chapter goes on to examine the increasing emphasis on eco- logical issues at festivals and the various means through which this is enacted. Drawing on aspects of music scene theory, it considers whether greenism within the festival scene is created through the boundary work of the organ- izers or manifests a developing, translocally dispersed, green ethos centred around alternative, indie and other fringe musics that feature at contemporary music festivals. It considers the possibility that festivals may function as a component of the cultural public sphere: as nodal points for the articulation of a series of developing youth sensibilities and practices centred around environmental awareness and neo-greenist ideology and practice. The chapter concludes by viewing the broader significance of the 'green' festival for youth as a type of cosmopolitan experience pertaining to the construction of sustainable lifestyles and a cosmopolitan outlook grounded in notions of responsible global citizenship.