“I Come Back a Better Person”: Identity Construction and Maintenance at a Regional Burn Festival

Abstract

Burn festivals are participatory, non‐commodified festivals based in self‐expression, creativity, and community and are structured in the model of the original Burning Man festival, established in 1986. This study addresses reflexive identity processes among participants within the context of a regional burn festival. Building on prior research addressing identity processes in counter‐cultural social spheres we conceptualize a regional burn festival as a site for identity construction and maintenance. Specifically, we examine participants’ (1) involvement within this culturally subversive community as it may facilitate reflexive identity processes, (2) discursive and interactive negotiations of authenticity and who/what invokes the “spirit” of Burning Man, (3) conceptions of the relevance that this community and its guiding principles hold to participants’ everyday lives, and (4) politicized sensibilities and forms of lifestyle‐based action. Further, we specify the mechanisms through which identity is formed and elucidate the tensions involved in maintaining consistency between one's beliefs and actions while participating in festivals and living in the day‐to‐day “default” world.

Everyday Ritual and Ethnographic Practice: Two Cases Showing the Importance of Embodiment and Reflexivity

“…Even across social differences, rituals can be a way that individuals relate to one another (Braunstein, Fulton, and Wood 2014). Rituals can be transformative and contribute to changes in one’s sense of self (Austin and Fitzgerald 2018; Winchester 2008) or larger cultural meanings (Armstrong and Crage 2006; Schwartz and Schuman 2005). These types of rituals can sometimes provide opportunities to reconcile conflicting meanings and identities (Wagner-Pacifici and Schwartz 1991), or reinscribe collective imagery (Gabriel, Lentz, and N’Guessan 2020), even in the face of tragedies (Hawdon and Ryan 2011; Riley 2014).…”

“Man Looks at the Outward Appearance, God Looks at the Heart:” Inclusion and Identity in a High Boundary Religion

“…Identity work and boundary work are inexorably linked to one another as groups work to define and distinguish themselves (Austin and Fitzgerald 2018;Riesch 2010). The inquiry into the construction and maintenance of the boundaries and religious institutions that define groups and hold them together can be traced back to Durkheim's ([1912] 1954) discussion of the sacred and profane.…”

Rave and hardstyle festival attendance motivations: a case study of Defqon.1 weekend festival

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