That’s why festivals matter. Not just as events, but as Communal ecosystems.

You are more than 100% correct!

Yesterday I was watching a YT video, someone explaining why birthrates are going down, the increase of people not finding a partner, and evn when they do, deciding not to have kids. His main point: screens and individualism. People are deciding to get everything on demand, based on 100% control. Instead of bedroom, mastrubation. Sounded all very depressing. Although I also see these trends already for quite some time. We also see more and more we turn to the Internet for our social contacts. Not all that bad, but in the end, we spend less time on IRL contacts. We do not know our neighbours. Something we see in cities already for a ling time, but this seems to happen in villages more and more as well. While previously, a feature of a village was the fact everybody knew eachother, these days city folks move to villages for different reasons, but stay away from the rest of the village, continuing behaving as if they live in a city.

Bars, clubs and festivals are the places where we can still feel part of a community! Especially those types of festivals you talk about in your post, where anyone can pick up a mic, where social contact is part of the concept. How cool Bard's Corner is created and successful.

Wish you a great Xmas.