The Youth Appeal of Far-Right Music Festivals

Abstract

This article explores an important, yet infrequently explored, topic in youth studies: far-right festivals. Drawing upon contemporary international examples, this article suggests the powerful imagery of embodied militancy in far-right festivals may cut through to potential young recruits, especially young men, on a visceral and emotional level. They experience a strong sense of nationalist heritage, cultural belonging and radical political identity. Youth may be attracted to the far-right through festivals because they seem to be an exciting space to express resistance against the mainstream, including hatred for ethnic minorities. There is an active process of becoming that takes place. Through collectively lived experience, young people, especially young white men, are guided towards right-wing extremist membership. Such events offer not only a powerful face-to-face experience for youth, but later become a compelling digital recruitment tool, targeted at young people, when photos and videos of the festival are uploaded on social media.

Festivals and Youth: An Educational Cultural Route to Festivals

“…New disciplines such as popular musicology make them a privileged field of study, from transdisciplinary theoretical approaches that take contributions from anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, semiotics, cultural and communication studies, postcolonial studies, gender and feminist studies [1]. This approach is supported by scholars who have significantly contributed to the understanding of festivals [2,3].…”

“…Particularly, festivals focusing on 20th century popular music have significantly attracted young audiences. These events serve as platforms for youth engagement, where the attendees interact with a spectrum of social values, displaying trends that encompass both conservative and progressive ideologies [2,3].…”