Considerations on the Contribution of Music in the Popular Street Festival to the Construction of Territory

Abstract

Musical practices in the public space contribute to shape social life and the materiality of space in itself. When, by force of habit, music is connected to festive events –or else, turns them into such things– it allows for certain urban spaces to become spaces of social encounter and participation, thus also shaping the affections of those who inhabit the city. Such encounters are never exempt of conflict, be it with the authorities that control the public spaces or among users of such spaces. Grounded in sound studies and their contribution to understanding the notion of “territory”, this text offers a series of considerations on how music in the public space, performed in the context of festive events, contributes to the social and material construction of space. Such sonic occupations allow territories to be contested and reconfigured as urban assets where social groups and their cultures can exist and reproduce. Since music can potentially modify power dynamics, music-making is place-making, and in the context of festivities in everyday life, it contributes to creating, reclaiming, or contesting preexisting territories.