Celebration Events

1. Liminality and liminal
spaces
Celebration Events | By Ashley Garlick

2. What is
liminality?
• A liminal space is a void, or
the space between two
places
• Liminality is the process of
being in, or crossing the
space
• Described by Victor Turner
as being “betwixt and
between” places
• A spatial or temporal
threshold
• Considered a product of
ritual process

3. We can link
this to
events in
two ways…
1. Events that facilitate the
crossing of a liminal
space
2. Events that create a
liminal space to reside in

4. 1. Rites of passage
• The purpose of the event is to facilitate
transition from:
• One place to another
• One status to another
• One time to another
• One situation to another
• For example:
• Wedding ceremony
• Graduation ceremony
• Coming of age ceremony

5. Rites of
passage
Pre-liminal
Liminal
Post-liminal
Van Gennep, A. (1909). The Rites of Passage: a classic study of
cultural celebrations. Translated from French by M.B. Vizedom
and G.L.Caffee, 1960, Chicago: Chicago Free Press.

6. A University Graduation
1. Students gather at the venue with friends and
family
2. They are dressed in a gown and mortar board,
uniformly the same style for all peers
3. Students take their seats together, away from
their guests
4. They are called, and then cross the stage to
receive their award
5. They cast off their hats and gowns
6. They are reunited with their guests as graduates
7. A few celebrations

7. Which one of these events
could be described as a
right of passage?
1. Music festival
2. Rugby tournament
3. Baptism
4. Marathon

8. 2. Events creating
liminal spaces
• Opportunity for escapism
• Provide ‘possibilities for challenging social
conventions, social order and authority and
inverting society’s norms’ (Quinn, 2005)
• Allows people to ‘blow off some steam’
• Tolerate deviant behaviour?
• ‘Let your hair down’ – adopting a different persona
• Perhaps even becoming somebody else?
• Do we all wear masks?
Source: Quinn, B. (2005). Arts Festivals and the City, Urban Studies, 42(5/6), pp.927-943

9. Which of these events
might we associate with
‘escapism’?
1. Weddings
2. Passing-out parade
3. Carnival
4. Awards ceremony

10. Liminal and liminoid
• Strictly speaking, you would pass
through a liminal space – conceived in
relation to Van Gennep’s Rite of
Passage
• Turner developed a more
contemporary ‘liminoid’ concept,
which represents a more fluid space
that individuals can more easily come
and go

11. The Carnival Mask
• First conceptualised by Bakhtin in 1984
• We wear a mask to hide our identity and
allow us to become somebody else
• Enables the joy of change and reincarnation
• Or “something that conveniently hides the
truth”?
Source: Smith, A. (2012) Events and Urban Regeneration, Abingdon:
Routledge

12. Changing cultural norms
Liminal spaces allow for cultural boundaries to be challenged, which
can lead to exposure and ultimately acceptance

13. Behavioural patterns associated
with a liminal experience
(Turner, V. 1969. The Ritual Process. Penguin)
• The emergence of anti-
structure
• A temporary suspension
of normal social status
• The development of
‘communitas’
• A bond shared between
those within the liminal
experience
• Both of these elements are
vital, as the anti-structure
alone could result in conflict.
• It is the communitas that
keeps people together.

14. Anti-structure
• Antithesis of the sociological concept of structure
• Absence or inversion of social norms and rules
• Without structure to constrain, individuals are free to exercise
agency
• BUT if there was no structure, wouldn’t there be anarchy?
• Is there no structure, or just new structure?

15. The impact of anti-structure
• The absence of structure also sees the suspension
of social status
• This enables participants to be considered as equals
• New hierarchies can be created within the group,
with status afforded to those shared values within
the liminal space
• Can manifest as tribal, and sometimes violent (or
taboo)
• E.G. Football fans
Source: Linden, H., & Linden, S. (2017). Fans and Fan Cultures, London: Palgrave
MacMillan.

16. Communitas
• Develops as a result of literal
and symbolic marginalisation
• Intense bond develops
within the marginalised
group
• Produces a feeling of
camaraderie and provides
support structure
• Could be considered a ‘neo-
tribe’

17. Communitas and
sociability
• The development of the feeling of
camaraderie (communitas) provides for
significant social value in:
• Helping create event-related social
events
• Facilitation of informal social
opportunities
• The production of ancillary events
• This promotes social inclusion and
community relations
Source: Chalip, L. (2006). Towards Social Leverage of Sport
Events. Journal of Sport and Tourism, 11(2), pp. 109-127.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14775080601155126

18. Liminal experiences
and festivals: an
enhanced framework
• Based on observations of
music festivals in China and
interviews with attendees
• Conceptualised Van
Gennep’s three stages as
containing sub-stages, with
six stages in total
• Expanded Turner’s concept
of communitas into three
different types
Source: Wu, S. Li, Y. Wood, E.H., Senaux, B., and Dai, G. (2020). Liminality and
festivals – Insights from the East, Annals of Tourism Research, 80, pp.1-13, DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102810

19. Designing liminality
• Need to consider before, during and after the event
• Activate the immersive liminal space in terms of experiences that
stimulate emotions, human senses, and interactivity
• This can be achieved through three main areas:
1. Drama
2. Atmosphere
3. Service encounter
Source: Garlick, A. and Ali, N., (2020). Liminality and Event Design: Liminal space design for
sport events, in: I. Lamond and J. Moss (eds). Exploring Liminality in Critical Event Studies:
Boundaries, Borders, and Contestation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

20. Liminality and
‘third’ spaces
• The liminal space can extend to an ‘intermediate
space’
• Can continue to observe and replicate rituals
central to the event
• Creates an “imagined community” (Anderson,
1983)
• E.g. ‘watch parties’ for live events, such as
Eurovision parties or SuperBowl parties
• Neo-liminality
• Would you consider a ”watch party” to be part of
the event it is watching?
Source: Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.

21. Other key
considerations
• The importance of journey in increasing the
event significance and facilitating
communitas (Jaimangal-Jones et al, 2010)
• Chimes with Van Gennep’s rite of
separation
• Notions of pilgrimage
• ‘Liturgy’ is a requirement within the space
• The extent of the liminal experience
dependent on if the liturgy is perceived
as legitimate (Seidl and Guerard,
2015:572)
• Liminal spaces cannot exist in perpetuity
• They are characterised by transgressive
behaviour, which by it’s nature will be
taboo
Source: Jaimangal-Jones, D. Pritchard, A. and Morgan, N. (2010). Going the distance: locating journey, liminality
and rites of passage in dance music experiences. Leisure Studies, 29(3), pp.253-268.
Seidl, D. and Guerard, S. (2015). Meetings and workshops in the practice of strategy, in: D. Golsorkhi, L. Rouleau,
D. Seidl, and E. Vaara (eds). Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

22. Further reading
• Garlick, A. and Ali, N., (2020). Liminality and Event Design:
Liminal space design for sport events, in: I. Lamond and J.
Moss (eds). Exploring Liminality in Critical Event Studies:
Boundaries, Borders, and Contestation, Basingstoke:
PalgraveMacmillan.
• Jaimangal-Jones, D. Pritchard, A. and Morgan, N. (2010).
Going the distance: locating journey, liminality and rites of
passage in dance music experiences. Leisure Studies, 29(3),
pp.253-268.
• Quinn, B. (2005). Arts Festivals and the City, Urban Studies,
42(5/6), pp.927-943

23. Discussion
1. What is the social significance of festivals to
a millennial consumer?
2. What are the cultural differences between
a US and Western European market, and
how did this influence the development of
festivals since the 1960s?
3. How do festivals create a liminal space?
4. Why are festivals important to the
individuals included in the documentary?

24. Discussion
1. Is someone watching an event on the
television at home a participant?
2. To what extent can you be an active
participant of an event when you are not
there?
3. To what extent could you consider a virtual
classroom a liminoid space? Why?