Maintaining Connections during the Pandemic: Rural Arts Festivals and Digital Practices

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020/21, the transmission of live or recorded concerts grew exponentially as festival makers embraced digital technologies to a greater degree. Investigating how this digital pivot interrupted festival-making practices is now important given that online and hybrid modes will potentially be used in conjunction with in-person events in the future. This task has relevance for rural areas where digital infrastructures can be under-developed. Yet, place-based, community-organised festivals can play a significant role in sustaining local communities. In this context, we explore the recent digital programming practices of music festivals in West Cork, Ireland. Methodologically, the study adopted a qualitative research design and generated data from fieldwork observations and in-depth interviews with festival practitioners in West Cork. This area was chosen for study because it is characterised by intensive arts and festival activity, high tourism activity, and a significant level of social change. The findings show that the ability of festivals to move practices online was variable and highly resource dependent. Overall, they suggest that in times of crisis the role of festivals became even more important than normal. Festivals played an important role in sustaining social connectivity, cultural participation and employment, with festival organisations demonstrating a strong sense of care and responsibility towards participants.