Ravefestival, 7 dygn i Turkiet : En studie av trancerörelsen och hur den kollektiva identiteten görs genom festivalen som interaktionsritual

• Main Author: Christ-Lind, Hanna
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Karlstads universitet, Fakulteten för samhälls- och livsvetenskaper 2006
• Subjects: rave; trance; festival; emotions; emotioner; Sociology; Sociologi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-244

In this paper my aim is to understand the trance movement from within as a collective phenomenon. I went to Turkey with my boyfriend David on a trance gathering, a festival called A Total Solar Eclipse Festival. There I did participant observations and interviews. Can Collins theory about interaction ritual be useful to raise the understanding? And is it fruitful to apply the term collective identity? The collective identity is build up by the festival as interaction ritual. It generates solidarity, emotional energy and a sense of belonging. In this paper I discuss different categories and symbols that the collective identity contains of. Like for example the music or the movement’s experience of the nature. The categories are symbols in that sense that they are norms and values which the participants bring along with them, they gets stronger and reproduces through the festival. The categories that I have found I place under one main category called “liberation of spirituality” where feelings of timeless, present orientation and a break from ordinary life. But also feelings as freedom, beautiful nature, colours, music, and drugs that raise the spirit and scatter boarders. The movement also contains conflicts, some of them they express explicitly and others they don’t mention more than implicit.