This succinct and engaging text rethinks the common wisdom that festivals, sites of collective celebration and play, provide a temporary reprieve from the grind of everyday, 'real' life. Keren Zaiontz explores the ways in which cultural performances of resistance that have their basis in festivals can migrate to other contexts, making festivals as much the domain of free markets and state power as that of vanguard artists and progressive social movements. Accessible and affordable, this is an ideal resource for theatre students and lovers everywhere.