The Festivalisation of the Cádiz Carnival

Abstract

Cádiz, a city with a strong commitment to creativity and culture, hosts a wide variety of events, festivals and celebrations centred around cinema, theatre, puppet theatre, dance, flamenco, the composer Manuel de Falla and Carnival, with its famous Concurso Oficial de Agrupaciones Carnavalescas (Official Carnival Groups Competition) its most visible, vibrant and widely publicised event. This article examines the festivalisation processes that have affected Carnival celebrations in Cádiz since the 1950s. During this period, Carnival groups and their songs were revived in the city, coinciding with the emergence of festivals in Western society, and the festivalisation and the spectacularisation of culture. It also discusses how, prior to this, in the second half of the 19th century, modernisation and the idea of progress had already impacted the Carnival and its musical groups through their municipalisation, gentrification and an incipient commercialisation and professionalisation, which would intensify in subsequent decades.