Israel a country with 5.8 million residents where theater-going exceeds attendance at spectator sports is a society rich in cultural events, including festivals of all kinds and descriptions: Music and dance; theater and cinema; and the plastic arts.
A 1996 survey found that some 70 events billed as festivals of every type and description were publicized through the year in Israels largest Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot.
Cultural geographers point out that in modern times, festivals have filled purposes beyond fun and entertainment, serving to one degree or another a mixture of economic interests and cultural politics. They act as a tribal mechanism of "we-ness" promoting social cohesion while at the same time fueling economic aims. Even the five-week Salzburg Festival, "father of the modern festival," founded in 1918, and the renowned Edinburgh Festival, initiated in 1947, both served as vehicles for national definition as well as fulfilling economic goals.
Festivals in Israel reflect certain patterns and trends particular to Israeli society and culture. Historically, the festivals have served a dual role on the cultural scene: to nurture and promote local culture, and to expose local culture to currents elsewhere, as both a benchmark and source of inspiration.
As elsewhere, festivals in Israel have been mobilized for economic purposes, by both local authorities and commercial interests, and are used by performing artists to promote their careers. Over the years, the subject, the location, the scope and even the goals and overall character of the "festival circuit" have changed dramatically.
In the fifties, festivals were few and far between. Those that did take place were predominantly "inward-looking" in orientation. In the sixties and seventies, the festival scene was dominated by one festival - the Israel Festival - a step up in scale from previous festivals, which provided a better balance between artists from Israel and abroad.
Only in the eighties did Israel witness a blossoming of festivals of all kinds and colors a successful mixture that has continued into the nineties.
Festivals in Israel fall in two basic categories: There are festivals that provide a concentrated "dose" of culture based on existing material, whether local or imported; these are epitomized by the Israel Festival founded in 1963. There are also festivals that create culture staging new productions and new material an element present in four major Israeli festivals the Acco Alternative Theater Festival, the Carmiel Dance Festival, the Arad Hebrew Song Festival and the Red Sea Jazz Festival, all launched in the 1980s.
Summer is the most popular time for festivals anywhere, but Israels climate extends the traditional "festival season", as six months of dry summer from May to September lend themselves to large open-air events. This makes it possible, for example, to plan the gala opening for an international film festival in Jerusalem with 5,000 participants in the historic Sultans Pool under a canopy of stars on a gigantic screen above the heads of the spectators. No rain checks necessary.
Jewish religious holidays such as Sukkot (Tabernacles) in the fall; Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights) in the winter; Pesach (Passover) in the spring and Shavuot (the Festival of Weeks) in early summer serve as a natural "anchor" for festivals of all kinds and descriptions religious and secular. During the early years of the state, creative energies were invested in reviving agricultural aspects of these holidays which had a purely religious context in the Diaspora. Shavuot, for example, was transformed into a one-day festival marked by tractors decorated with agricultural produce, prize livestock, boys armed with scythes and barefoot girls with baskets of first fruits on their shoulders recalling a county fair. Passover, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, was marked with a popular three-day march to Jerusalem.
Most workers enjoy a two-day weekend, and the Jewish calendar provides many extended weekends. In fact, some would argue that art festivals fill a void among non-observant Jews in Israel, providing an "alternative" form of festive content and spiritual nourishment to that of the Jewish holidays. Thus it is not surprising that today six major festivals are scheduled during the Passover holiday four classical music festivals, one sculpture biennial and a childrens theater festival.
Concurrent with development of a local cultural genre, there has been a strong European emphasis in Israeli culture. The Ein Gev Festival, the first genuine music festival held in Israel, not only reflected the dominant European background, but exposed Israeli society to cultural currents elsewhere primarily European ones both for the purposes of comparison and as a source of inspiration.
The first decade of the state was a critical period marked by political, economic and social difficulties in the wake of the War of Independence and mass immigration that stretched state resources to the limits. In the midst of rationing, housing shortages and unemployment, exacerbated by security problems such as incursions of infiltrators, the nurturing of a unifying national culture was regarded as an essential element in nation-building.
Forging a common culture deemed essential for the states survival as a political and social entity was to "will" an Israeli culture in language, literature, and the arts.
This was also reflected in mass audience festivals for the most part one-day affairs that characterized the first two decades of statehood. These included the Adloyada Purim procession; renewal of ancient agricultural harvest festivals associated with Sukkot and Shavuot; and a series of one-time "festivals" anchored to an historic event such as a citys anniversary. Organized to strengthen national identity and pride and social cohesion, these events were characterized by the staging of grandiose and colorful pageants integrating two forms of indigenous cultural expression Hebrew music and Israeli folkdancing.
Thus, festivals in the fifties had an inward-looking focus that mobilized arts to provide ideological content, creating a continuity with ancient cultural currents. In these years, artistic development mirrored an environment when ideological content and attempts at self-definition permeated every aspect of life, including the arts a situation that moved one observer to dryly comment that "Israel is most probably the only nation where folk dancing is the prerogative of choreographers."
The early sixties constitute a milestone in the development of Israeli festivals signaling an international turn in focus and scope. This was marked by the founding of the Israel Festival and the inauguration of the International Book Fair both ambitious ventures, expensive to mount and complex to orchestrate. This shift was also part of a general process of "institutionalization" of culture in Israel foundation of permanent frameworks such as new theaters, orchestras, museums and so forth. This differed from the fluid nature of cultural life in the first decade of statehood.
The Israel Festival was so successful in its early years that it dominated the festival landscape for two decades perhaps discouraging any competition. To this day, festivals that have since developed are of a lesser magnitude and more focused on a specific market or art form.
Since the early 1980s, Israel has witnessed a blossoming of festivals of all kinds high-brow and low-brow, mass-attendance and intimate, with an international or local focus, populist or fringe.
Israeli art is highly subsidized. This is a concerted effort of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Council of Culture and Art and Omanut Laam the Popular Arts Program (the latter a framework designed to bring cultural events to the periphery). In the 1980s, all cooperated to "widen the cultural circle" with festivals in outlying areas.
Theater is subsidized by the government and local municipalities by up to 60% of operating costs. When it became apparent that groups on the fringe were unable to mount productions on their own, the government stepped in founding and funding the Acco Fringe Theater Festival as a proving ground for aspiring playwrights, producers and actors.
In the wake of the phenomenal success of the Acco festival, every small town in Israel wanted a festival to call its own. Among these are half a dozen spring and fall festivals that intermix arts with crafts; a Brass Orchestra Festival in Kfar Saba; a beer and pop music festival billed as "Breezes" in Ashkelon; a country, folk and blues music festival labeled "Jacobs Ladder" in Kibbutz Haon and the Tzemach Festival a two-day around-the-clock Israeli pop and rock concert for teens in and around the grounds of the Tzemach amphitheater on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. A spring festival at the Dead Sea the lowest place on earth includes soloists and music ensembles, spiritual seminars, fairs, childrens activities, and relaxing in the unique waters of the Dead Sea.
Among the more creative of the local festivals is A Stone in the Galilee an international sculpture symposium sponsored by the development town of Maalot in the Galilee.
Sculptors are invited to work on location, overlooking the picturesque remains of a Crusader castle, during the week of Passover in the spring creating environmental sculpture with blocks of Galilean stone provided by the municipality.
The success of government initiatives to "decentralize culture," as in the Acco and Arad festivals, was closely associated with changes in society rising standards of living, development of a consumer society and a leisure culture; and exposure to cultural currents abroad, including arts festivals. In the eighties more and more Israelis traveled abroad encountering international festivals and cable TV in the nineties brought such events into homes. Concurrently, the country witnessed rapid development of local tourism with an emphasis on touring by car, accommodation of bed and breakfasts and meals in roadside restaurants, as well as a strong focus on open-air activities from picnicking and rafting to recitals and concerts.
These include a three-day festival during the Passover week at Misgav in the Upper Galilee entitled "Days of Music and Nature" that blends concerts and harmony with nature through a series of walking tours.
Today half of all Israeli festivals are in the Galilee and less than a third in Tel Aviv part of a move towards decentralization of culture. Today, the process of decentralization is evident in the major festivals held throughout the country from "Chamber Music Days" in an Upper Galilee kibbutz to the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat.
The phenomenal success of the Red Sea Jazz Festival prompted the 1993 launching of a "Blues and Soul Festival" amidst the ships and cranes of Haifa port.
The role of festivals in local leisure culture is akin to the eternal quandary Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Some stress that Galilee festivals have played a central role in the development of the Galilee, others stress that their success has been fueled by the transformation of the Galilee into an attractive tourist site. The flowering of festivals reflects a growing realization among local councils and commercial interests of the economic potential inherent in Israels geo-historical assets turning picturesque settings into attractive backdrops for commercial ventures. These include Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee site of Jesus miracle of the "The Fishes and the Loaves" where vocal and chamber music concerts are held in the fall in the Church of the Fishes and the Loaves; an interdisciplinary arts festival staged in the Roman theater at Beit Shean in May; the Khutzot Hayotzer crafts fair held every August near the walls of Jerusalems Old City; and a Crusader castle in the Western Galilee that serves as the backdrop for a Renaissance Music Festival in the fall.
One of the keys to the extraordinary number of festivals launched in the past decade tens of new ones, large and small is accessibility.
Even festivals in outlying areas are only a few hours drive from population centers made accessible by mobility gained by the rising standard of living that has made family cars more commonplace in the past two decades.
The blossoming of festivals in the mid-Eighties has also been characterized by the appearance of festivals dedicated to art forms other than music and dance: In addition to photography, a number of small festivals have been mounted that focus on the plastic arts such as the Ein Hod Sculpture Biennial inaugurated in 1990. The most successful among the "other arts" has been the cinema.
Some observers believe the blossoming of niche-audience festivals in the nineties spells a change of orientation. Optimists see this as a sign of normalcy; pessimists fear abandonment of attempts to create a common culture is a sign of "social fragmentation."
Another sign of cultural diversity infused with more than a shot of commercialism are folklore festivals.
The past decade has been hallmarked by the flowering of folklore festivals, particularly in the Arab sector motivated by a mixture of heightened national consciousness among Israeli Arabs; efforts by the government to nurture tourist industry in Arab towns; and the desire of commercial interests to cash in on the economic prosperity brought to the Galilee by touring Israelis and tourists form abroad.
The growing awareness of the picturesque character of the Arab village as a drawing card, laced with growing ethnic pride, have launched a National Arab Song Festival featuring poetry and songs held in the town of Tamra in April; an Arab Monodrama Festival staging six to eight single-actor plays at Beit Hagefen an Arab culture center in Haifa, in May; a National Debka Festival of Druze and Arab folk dancing that attracts some forty folklore dance groups annually in the village of Majd al Krum in August; and an interdisciplinary art festival in Nazareth in September-October.
The most high-profile festival in the Arab sector is also Israels most prominent vocal music festival. It is held in Abu Gosh, an Arab village near Jerusalem, and features a repertoire of liturgical music.
The eighties and nineties have also witnessed a host of small out-of-the-mainstream festivals in Tel Aviv during the winter months including an international guitar festival in November, a week-long Curtains Up Festival of new choreography in December and a four-day Teatronetto Festival devoted to solo drama performances in March. Jerusalem hosts an annual sacred music festival in January and a biennial Poets Festival in late March.
Wine festivals have been inaugurated in recent years by a number of local town councils in Jewish settlements like Zichron Yaakov. Continuing this theme, a "culinary festival on wheels" in the Western Galilee labeled Derech HaOchel ("Fare Route"). This festival, based on local Arab ethnic fare and traditional dishes brought to Israel by Jewish immigrants, was launched in 1997. Another food-related event is an olive oil festival in the fall.
Although a relative late-comer to the festival scene, Israel is today crisscrossed by a host of festivals local and international in flavor; high-brow and low brow; small gatherings and large extravaganzas; performances in art centers and concert halls in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and festivals in exotic settings. Festivals focus on the performing arts, the plastic arts and even the culinary arts. The music festivals that dominate the festival circle are indicative of the countrys diversity.
There are over three dozen music festivals instrumental and vocal, in a host of settings from concert halls and churches to caves and ports. Festivals feature a host of instruments from harps to brass bands to philharmonic orchestras. The music offered is a mixture of secular and religious the latter anything from classical liturgica to gospel. Secular genres range from Renaissance to fringe rock including classical and contemporary, country and jazz, folk and pop music.
Over the past five decades, the festival scene has blossomed and been decentralized geographically and organizationally. A growing role is being played by commercial interests.
While festivals still maintain a close affinity to European culture, the tone and tempo has become de-hegemonized and de-homogenized and thus uniquely Israeli. Over the years older established festivals have become less preoccupied with local culture and more international in both scope and flavor, reflected, for example, in the changes at the Carmiel Dance Festival.
Optimists stress that Israeli culture has become much more "relaxed" feeling less threatened by "other." Pessimists worry that "retreat" from the concept of a monolithic national culture has encouraged insulated genres that focus inward like the Klezmer Festival.
Nevertheless, most would agree that Israeli festivals to date continue to serve as a catalyst for the evolution of local genres particularly in two popular pastimes singing and folkdancing. And there is no question that the Acco Alternative Theater has become an invigorating influence and innovative force in Hebrew theater.
Where are Israeli festivals headed? Festivals everywhere draw their prime audiences from among the local citizenry. Israel with a relatively small population does not have an "unlimited market" of potential festival-goers; in fact, the scope and variety witnessed today is quite impressive. Some observers believe that Israel, in its Jubilee year, is approaching a saturation point on the festival scene.
Will Israeli festivals develop a more Mediterranean flavor as witnessed in its pop music? Will creeping commercialism lead to more conservative programs as many fear? Will openness to international currents undermine the singularity of Israeli culture or enrich it? Only time will tell. What is certain is that festivals as a phenomenon are here to stay in a big way.