Festivals, games, and ludic performances as a new potential intangible cultural heritage in the mediterranean world

In a world where tourism and leisure industries have become more and more powerful, it has become urgent to reassess the role of public ceremonies and performances as a resource in the building of new potential intangible cultural heritages as well as a possible historical and political issue in the building up of local cultural or multicultural identities. This article considers three interwoven series of phenomena in the recent history of the Mediterranean: it tries to grasp elements connected with the fields of cultural tourism, the heritagization of local festivals, and performance, in order to show how local festivals are today transformed into new economic resources confronted with new global issues and perspectives.