TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH VOL. 31(1), 2006: 57-66 ©2006 Tourism Recreation Research Experiencing Festival Bodies: Connecting Massage and Wellness JENNIFER LEA This paper looks at the spaces and practices of a music festival through the lens of experiential consumption. The bodily experiences of the festival (and in particular the ‘healing space’ of the festival) are examined, in terms of the space itself, and how it intersects with the practices that take place. The healing space includes a range of massage practices. The paper doesn’t attempt to prescribe what a ‘well’ body might consist of, but rather opens wellness up in terms of a corporeal experimentation with different modes of being in the world. Keywords: massage, wellness, non-representational theory, experiential consumption, embodiment, music festivals, sensory engagement. Introduction Wellness is undoubtedly a bodily phenomenon, comprised through experiential qualities of sensations and feelings. As such, this paper approaches wellness through the techniques of bodywork practices (specifically massage) in the Body and Soul area of a music festival. In doing this it asks what wellness might be in an ‘economy of experience’ (Pine and Gilmore 1999) in which the currency is the enhancement of bodily pleasures and sensations. The paper begins by introducing the two main themes of music festivals and wellness, and then moves on to discuss massage and its relation to festival bodies, enrolling non-representational theory in order to valorize the embodied knowledge and intelligence of the body (Dewsbury 2000). The experiential methods used put the body at the centre of the knowledge production process in order to interrogate how the spaces and practices of the festival (more generally) and the Body and Soul area (more specifically) are folded together towards the production of a corporeally experienced wellness. Festival Spaces and Experiencing Wellness Festivals Despite their popularity in the UK context (Glastonbury for example has a capacity of 112,000 people and attracts considerable media coverage) there has been relatively little research done around music festivals. In general, research has focused more widely upon rave (Hill 2002) and dance music culture, with more specific attention being paid to clubs and clubbing practices (Malbon 1999; Thornton 1995 for example). However, some inroads have been made by the tourism and sociological literature. Tourist studies have predominantly considered music festivals in terms of motivations of attendees, or revenue generation. Crompton and McKay (1997: 429) suggested that festivals are ‘one of the fastest growing types of tourism attractions’. As such they consider an important point of intervention to be analyzing the motivations of attendees in order that ‘practical settings and contexts in a festival can be amended to facilitate fulfilment of them’ (1997: 426). They perform a quantitative analysis, concluding that the majority of festival-goers are motivated by a desire for interpersonal socialization, and ‘the desire to obtain psychological (intrinsic) rewards through travel in a contrasting (new or old) environment’ (Iso-Ahola: 1982 quoted in Crompton and McKay 1997: 428). These are interesting findings, but seem to over-simplify the case in a number of ways, for example overplaying the rational aspect of visitor motivations and placing too much emphasis upon the psychological aspects of experience. The other emphasis within tourist studies is the revenue gained from a festival. Although, not focusing specifically upon music festivals O’Sullivan and Jackson (2002: 326) note the economic value of festivals is related to their ‘considerable income generating properties and…ability to provide jobs’. They examine the potential for festival tourism to ‘contribute to sustainable local economic development’ (O’Sullivan and Jackson 2002: 337). The sociological literature generally frames music festivals through the suggestion that they are a subculture phenomenon; Purdue et al. (1997: 647) label them as ‘DIY (do-it-yourself) culture’; a ‘self proclaimed cultural movement, challenging the symbolic codes of mainstream culture’. They go on to suggest that festivals are, ‘apart’ from everyday life, spaces where the ‘symbolic frameworks of JENNIFER LEA is a Doctoral Candidate at School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK. e-mail: jennifer.lea@bristol.ac.uk