Abstract
Since the turn of the millennium the main analytical focus in festival studies has been the festivalization of urban politics and culturalization of city economies. However, there are still very few investigations of the interconnectedness of these processes with local festive communities. The ethnography of the historic community-based urban festivity, the Palio di Siena, provides a particular inside view on how the process of festivalization can be shaped in a particular local way, and intertwined with high emotionality, a specific spatiality of socio-cultural festive practices, and processes of social transformation. Indeed, this case shows that processes of festivalization do not only occur at the city or national level, but also within local communities. Furthermore, during the festivity the socio-emotional and political modalities of publicness and intimacy intertwine at specific places.
These findings may help to inform festival studies in regard to the issues of place attachment, social cohesion, the sustainable development of urban festivities, and the emergence of public spaces from festive practices.