Rock'n'roll i Hultsfred : ungdomar, festival och lokal gemenskap

Bjälesjö, Jonas 2013. Rock’n’roll i Hultsfred – Ungdomar, festival och lokal gemenskap (Rock’n’roll in Hultsfred – Youth, Festival and Local Community). Swedish text with a summary in English. Doctoral Dissertation, Lund University, 2013. Published by: Hammarlin bokförlag 2013, Yderhult, Båstad, 0431-755 88, www.hammarlin.se/bokforlag, 200 pages, ISBN: 978-91-979381-0-5.

Abstract

This study is concerned with a well-known festival in Sweden; how a group of music loving young people, through widespreadvsocial networking, created extensive musical activities in the small municipal community of Hultsfred. Out of the locally based independent music association, Rockparty, grew one of Sweden’s biggest festivals. The thesis examine how both association and
festival grew in symbios with the local community, how Rockparty together with other actors created the phenomenon known as the Hultsfred festival. The aim is to study the shaping of social community and how the social composition and material condition of a place coordinates with youth and their music activities at this particular place. To analyze the significance of community the concepts of social capital and place have been important.

The author analyzes the balancing act of being an alternative and rebellious rock association and a general youth association (or societal association) that bring different youth groupings and generations together. The more musically inclined, caring about taste and credibility, in the association met with those of a more business oriented mind, emphasizing development and growth. This tension broadened the activities and brought them forward. And, this was the fundament for making the rebellious rock’n’roll attitude join in with business-mindedness and a subcultural entrepreneurship. Punk attitude
transformed into corporational activity, which generated necessary knowledge for music and festival arrangements and conditions for building important social networks.

However, maneuvering between being rock rebels and ”common” rural youth; cultural innovators and commercial entrepreneurs; between broad folkyness and alternative exclusivity; between carnivalistic
lawlessness and orderly commerciality, wasn’t always easy. Rockparty managed to construe a social capital that was strong locally and externally, with extensions in a number of directions, but it also led to difficulties and social tensions.

The study is based on several years of fieldwork and a wide-ranging empirical material of participant observations, field diaries,
conversations, interviews, internal and external documentation etcetera.