Ninth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

This paper considers an aspect of organizing cultural events focused on voluntary work. The research problem concerns the involvement of voluntary workers in organizing popular culture events, based on selected examples of three circus street festivals. The research question is: How does the involvement of voluntary workers organizing circus street festivals in Poland look like from their perspective? The paper is the result of qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, conducted from 2021 to 2024 in Europe. The originality of the work is mainly due to the participant observation carried out during the festivals in different roles: spectator, artistic crew, and volunteer supporting organizers. The aim of this paper is to present a reflection concerning the ambiguity of the voluntary work. The results presents a detailed description of the nature of such involvement. Moreover, the example of organizing circus street festivals is original due to the ephemeral nature of cooperation, regularity of organizing such events, as well as the unpredictable working conditions in open spaces. Finally, the circus environment is of interest because of the importance of informal ties, as well as the growing interest in contemporary circus art in Poland, despite the relatively low institutional support for this type of art.