Exploring festival performance as a state of encounter

This article outlines the activities of the research network ‘Festival Performance as a State of Encounter’, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the Beyond Text strategic programme. The network was formulated in 2008, and a range of different events were organized over the course of two years to explore the concept of relational performance within the context of popular music festivals. One of the central aims of the network was to bring into dialogue scholars from a range of disciplines within the performing arts and creative industries and industry professionals and practitioners working on the festival circuit. The network provided a meeting place for industry–academy collaboration that prompted genuine exchange and knowledge transfer across sectors and challenged assumptions about the role and value of expertise and experience in relation to research processes. The article examines the notion of encounter and co-creation not only as a method of practice in festival performance but also as a methodology for facilitating fruitful conversation and dynamic interaction between stakeholders with a shared interest in understanding the deep impact of embodied participation in festival spaces.