Paper Short Abstract:

Focusing on the Galician verbena, this paper explores the connections between the materiality of popular festivals and the changes in the social, cultural and economic ecosystems in which they operate.

Paper Abstract:

The so-called verbenas populares are popular festivals that take place on the occasion of local patron saint's festivities in villages Galicia, a region located in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. These popular festivals are deeply ingrained in the annual life cycle of the places in which they are held, for its organization is the responsibility of local grassroot associations who devote months to raising money, hiring the best orchestras and arranging the physical space for the festival.

This paper analyses the craftsmanship and practical knowledge involved in the organisation of these popular festivals. In particular, it focuses on the bandstands that frame the campo da festa, a type of vernacular architecture built by local residents according to their own aesthetic tastes and financial resources. Although these structures - most of which are now obsolete due to the advent of mobile stages - are often neglected in local heritage debates as examples of architectural 'ugliness', this paper argues that an analysis of their material, morphological and functional evolution will allow us to better understand the changes in the social, cultural and economic ecosystems in which these popular celebrations are embedded.