WORLD FESTIVAL AND METROPOLITAN STRATEGIES

BARCELONA AND THE UNIVERSAL FORUM OF CULTURES 2004

Abstract

World tourist feasts are undergoing important changes as a result of globalization. They affect the cultures and behaviours of the participants and the intentions of those in charge of the project. The Universal Forum of Cultures organized in Barcelona during Summer 2004 by the City Hall, the Catalan Generalitat, the Spanish Government and UNESCO displayed the hybridization that World feasts are undergoing in their form and content. The giant feasts have to meet the numerous expectations that their attendance and the  reactions they create during and after the event put sometimes in check. This results from the fragile foundations of their justification and from the resonance of the external world even within their precincts. A new public space and a new cultural identity result from the festive and in a way, pagan sanctification of an urban debased periphery. The Forum of Barcelona is used as a reference for a Barcelonese identity, which is undergoing a process of restructuring and entertains doubts about its future. Between forget processes, urban heritage and financial deficit, the European giant feast tends to become an operation of marketing and communication with fragile ideological and symbolic bases.