PCI researchers publish new insights on Scottish festivals

Two researchers from the School of Performance and Cultural Industries have published new research exploring how Scottish festivals adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr John Wright and Dr Alice Borchi are the authors of Landscapes and Cyberscapes of the Commons: Scottish Festivals in the Pandemic and Beyond, published open access in The International Journal of the Commons on 19 January 2026.

The article examines how Scottish festivals implemented commoning practices in digital and hybrid formats during periods of severe restriction. Drawing on interviews conducted with festival organisers between October 2020 and September 2021, the authors identify shared approaches to governance, resource-sharing and community engagement across a range of festival contexts.

While cautioning against describing festivals as “commons” in a simplistic sense, the research argues that commoning practices are central to festival identity and remain vital even when physical gathering is disrupted. The article also situates festivals within the idea of a ‘temporal commons’, highlighting their role in marking time culturally and providing spaces for play, critique and collective experience.

The research further suggests that when festivals move online, instrumental arguments around place-branding and regeneration fall away, leaving culture, people and connectedness at the core.

The article is available to read open access.