The Middlebrow Pleasures of Literary Festivals

Abstract

In 1951, when Noel Coward penned his mocking ode to the Festival of Britain, Europe was in the throes of a post-war boom in cultural festivals. Coward’s satire points to the precarious status of these events: despite their prominence, they invited ridicule both for their grand cultural claims and their commercial character. As Coward writes, ‘We’ve never been/exactly keen/On showing off or swank/But as they say/That gay display/means money in the bank’ (2002, 343). Like other middlebrow institutions, cultural festivals pursue both artistic and commercial goals and this tension creates confusion about their purpose: in Coward’s phrase, ‘Don’t give anyone time to ask/What the Hell it’s about’ ..