Cultural Festivals in Urban Public Space: Conflicting City Projects in Chile’s Central Zone

Abstract

This article explores the urban fabric of three cities in Chile based on the history of the cultural festivals held there in recent decades. Taking as a background a series of cultural milestones that marked public space in Santiago, Valparaíso, and Concepción in the transition to the twenty-first century, I investigate the broader city projects that have resulted in the Santiago a Mil International Festival, the Thousand Drums Carnival, and the Rock en Conce (REC) Festival. Focusing on the urban tensions and conflicts that emerge in this type of event, I analyse the public discourses that arise around these festivals, the uses of the city that they promote, and their ways of mobilising a particular mode of understanding and exercising cultural policy in their territories.