Fairs, festivals and competitive events play a crucial role in the creative industries; yet their significance has been largely overlooked. This book explores the role of such events through a series of studies that include some of the most iconic fairs and festivals in the world. It brings together a team of distinguished scholars to examine art fairs, biennales, auctions, book fairs, television programming markets, film festivals, animation film festivals, country music festivals, fashion weeks, wine classifications and wine-tasting events. This diverse set of studies shows that such events serve a variety of purposes: as field-configuring events (FCEs), as a way of ritualizing industry practices, and as ‘tournaments of.
