Major Event and Festival Impacts Seminar 2: Major Events and Festivals as Spectacle

Main Lessons from the Lecture It is suggested that spectacle has become one of the main organising principles of the economy, polity, society and everyday life Media culture has a significant role to play in the proliferation of increasingly technologically advanced spectacles There are strong links between spectacle, capitalism and postmodernism The role of the spectator is changing? DeBord’s theory of the Society of the Spectacle is one of the main theories in this area It could be suggested that the idea of spectacle has become rationalised and standardised The irony of the spectacle of resistance

Over to You! You should have selected a video/photo which you think demonstrates the idea of spectacle in events Show your video/photo to the rest of the class and be prepared to discuss how you think it represents spectacle…

Discussion Critically discuss the contention that spectacle has become one of the main organising principles of everyday life. Use examples to highlight the points that you make. Discuss the ways in which the role of the spectator is changing, do you think this differs for sporting and cultural events? Critically discuss the impact which you think the dramatisation of events for the purposes of spectacle has on the event and its origins. Do you think that the notion of spectacle in events has become standardised? What impact do you think this has on the events industry?