This one-day seminar will bring together researchers and academics working on aspects of festival economics and enterprise. It will seek to expand our empirical and theoretical understanding of the economic aspect of festivals and carnivals and how this intersects with their social, political and cultural functions. It will also critically examine the implications of the increased interest in policy circles of festivals as agents of regeneration and community development. Likely topic areas include: - transgression, the carnivalesque, and the new spirit of capitalism - ‘grant culture’ and the politics of community - Festivals and work - Mass market: culture, politics and regeneration - Festival entrepreneurs: knowledge, networks and risk - Transient locations and marginal neighbourhoods. Papers are invited from academics or students working on any of these themes, or others, either empirically, theoretically or methodologically. Studies focusing on festivals and carnivals in the UK and elsewhere are equally welcome. For more information, CLICK HERE