Festive Parks as Inclusive Spaces: Celebrating Latin American London in Finsbury Park
2023; Routledge; Volume: 48; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03058034.2023.2180861
ISSN1749-6322
Autores Tópico(s)Place Attachment and Urban Studies
ResumoAbstractFestivals are often regarded as a way of making cities and urban public spaces more inclusive, particularly for migrant communities. This proposition is examined here by analysing a festival that celebrates the growing number of Latin Americans who live in London. The research assesses how the Latino Life in the Park festival contributes to social and cultural inclusion and focuses on how this festival affects the inclusiveness of the park in which it is staged. Large-scale, fenced music festivals tend to be regarded as installations that make London's parks less inclusive. However, this article highlights the value of staging a free, and fence free, festival in a park setting. This created a sociable, festive park in which marginalised communities were made visible. By examining how the festival was organised, the ways people behaved and who attended, the article outlines how music festivals affect the dynamics and inclusivity of public spaces.Keywords: parksfestivalsinclusionexclusionmigrationpublic space AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank Dr Goran Vodicka, who was employed as a Research Fellow on the FESTSPACE project 2019–2020, and Tamanna Jahan, who directed and edited the 'Festivity and Inclusivity' film.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Andrew Smith, Events in the City: Using Public Spaces as Event Venues (London: Routledge, 2016).2 Panikos Panayi, Migrant City: A New History of London (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020).3 Judy Ling Wong, 'London: A National Park City, United Kingdom', in Why Cities Need Large Parks: Large Parks in Large Cities, ed. 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He leads the University's interdisciplinary Research Community dedicated to Sustainable Cities and the Urban Environment. His research addresses city events and urban tourism and he has a strong interest in urban regeneration and public spaces, particularly public parks. From 2019 to 2022 he was a PI on the HERA-funded FESTSPACE project, which examined how festivals and events affect the inclusiveness of public spaces.Didem ErtemDidem Ertem is a PhD Student in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster. She received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Istanbul Technical University and a Master's degree in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her current studies focus on inter-ethnic informal events and convivial practices in Finsbury Park. She is interested in anti-racism studies, migration and citizenship, and public space.
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