‘Getting in’ or ‘moving on’? On internship experiences and representation in the popular music festival sector

ABSTRACT

The cultural workforce has previously been described as pre-dominantly white, male and middle-class. Internships are often seen as a solution as they would function as a ‘democratising path to launch careers’. Nevertheless, previous research has also suggested that there is no smooth path from an internship to paid work for anyone, and even less so for some than for others. Moving beyond previous research, which often neglects the production perspective on music festival organisation altogether or exclusively focuses on individuals ‘getting into’ the cultural and creative industries (CCI), we also include those who are ‘moving on’. We question the (non)diverse composition of the popular music festival sector in Rotterdam, focusing on why and how people are excluded from working in it. Semi-structured interviews were collected in two phases: 1) workers who did an internship and moved into the sector (n = 11) and 2) former interns who left the music festival sector after their internship (n = 13). Findings indicate the force of the somatic norm of maleness and how related experiential differences affect sectoral demographic inequality. Moreover, internships are not an ‘easy fix’ for a non-diverse workforce because of how work is, experienced, organised and rewarded.

KEYWORDS:

• Somatic norm
• internships
• music festival industry
• cultural production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Humanities in the European Research Area [Hera.2.074].

Notes on contributors

Britt Swartjes

Britt Swartjes is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Arts and Culture Studies at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Her research engages with sociological approaches to music in the city, focusing on how music festivals can be public spaces where people from diverse backgrounds meet.

Pauwke Berkers

Pauwke Berkers is Professor of Sociology of Popular Music in the Department of Arts and Culture Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. He is an expert in the study of inequalities in arts and culture – particularly race/ethnicity and gender. He has published in leading journals in sociology and gender studies. Berkers has coordinated several national and international research projects.