14 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
ABSTRACT
The event religion framework has been developed to enable the study of event experi-
ence using the tools of sociology, ethnography and religious studies, independently of
the religious affiliation of the event participants or the events themselves. It examines
event experience along four dimensions: spatiotemporality, symbols, community, and
inward experience. This paper examines the event religion dimensions at a Catholic and
a rock-metal music event in Hungary in order to draw attention to similarities and differ -
ences in participant experiences at a religious and a non-religious festival.
KEYWORDS: event, religion, spirituality, religionesque, festivals, empirical fieldwork
IZVLEČEK
Okvir dogodkovne religije je bil razvit za proučevanje izkušnje dogodka z uporabo oro-
dij sociologije, etnografije in religijskih študijev, ne glede na religioznost tako udeležencev
dogodka kot tudi dogodka samega. Raziskuje izkušnjo dogodka čez štiri dimenzije: prostor-
čas, simboli, skupnost in notranja izkušnja. Prispevek raziskuje dimenzije dogodkovne religi-
je na katoliškem in metalsko-rockovskem glasbenem dogodku na Madžarskem, z namenom
prikazati podobnosti in razlike v izkušnji udeležencev religioznega in nereligioznega festivala.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: dogodek, religija, duhovnost, religionesknost, festivali, empirično terensko delo
1 Partly presented at the Contemporary Spirituality Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 6–7 October 2023, under the title “The
Event Religion Phenomenon” .
1.01 Izvirni znanstveni članek
DOI 10.4312/svetovi.2.1.14-30
Applying the Conceptual
Framework of “Event Religion”
to Two Hungarian Festivals
1 Uporaba konceptualnega okvira ‘dogodkovne religije'
na dveh madžarskih festivalih
Sára Eszter Heidl
15 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
Sára Eszter Heidl
Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
FESTIVAL STUDIES AND THE EVENT RELIGION FRAMEWORK
The study of festivals from a religious studies perspective is popular worldwide (Lloyd 2020;
Lucia 2020; Nita and Kidwell 2022; Pike 2022; Povedák 2014; Povedák 2022; Sherry and
Kozinets 2004; St John and Gauthier 2015; T esta 2019, 2023b; Vitos, Graham and Gauthier
2022). Approaches to festival communities and cultures have given rise to different concepts,
such as event communities (Kirchner 2011) or event cultures (St John and Gauthier 2015).
In addition to the many themes explored in festivals, such as their liminal nature, commu-
nity-building and transformative power and the role of the experience, other topics have
emerged, such as cultural and religious tourism (Kasim 2011), consumerism and authentic -
ity (Gauthier 2021), and marketing (Bowman 1999; Gauthier 2014). Most of the research
mentioned above has involved empirical fieldwork, with the scholars’ interest focused on
the experiences of participants.
From a religious studies point of view, fieldwork on festivals has shown that the par -
ticipants’ experiences can take on religious – or at least religionesque
(Heidl 2023d; T esta
2023a) – characteristics,
2 and that these events function as a substitute or complement to
religion, a collection point for those who identify as spiritual, but not religious, believing
without belonging (Burge 2021; Casanova 2020; Erlandson 2000; Fuller 2001; Mercadante
2014) and other similar categories, and are defining parts of lived (Ammerman 2021;
McGuire 2008) or vernacular (Primiano 1995) forms of religion.
This work aims to show that these religionesque characteristics of the participant expe-
rience can happen not only at a religious event (the Catholic Lélek festival, HU) but also at
a secular one (the Fekete Zaj music festival, HU). Employing qualitative methods, two case
studies will be presented in order to illustrate the differences and similarities between the
events. The case studies are follow-up comparative fieldwork of the project “Event Religion”
(Heidl 2024). The questions and methods were developed at the Everness mindfulness festival
in Hungary and the conceptual framework of “event religion” was created there. The previous
fieldwork showed that a festival can generate strong communal and individual experiences
that reflect ritualistic and religious behaviour, therefore creating a temporal, religionesque
space, time, symbols, community and personal experiences (Heidl 2024). In my earlier work,
I have defined “event religion” as a conceptual approach, which describes a phenomenon that:
creates a temporary community through shared activities, forms a quasi-liminal phase, and
thereby endows the place, time and symbols present with religionesque significance. During this
period, the person shows a high responsiveness to mystical, peak-, resonant and flow experiences,
thus gaining a temporary religionesque experience. (Heidl 2023b: 306)
Therefore, event religion is not intended to describe a new form of religion. It is inten-
ded to show that secular, non-traditional religious and spiritual settings have the ability to
2
My own term for “religion-like”, that is, similar to religion, or has a religious origin, but actually not religion (Heidl, 2023d).
16 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
generate such experiences in the participants that have religious connotations, just as the
lived/vernacular religion approaches claim. Therefore, “when the term ‘event religion’ is
used, religion itself does not refer to a religious event nor to the fact that the participants in
the event would be religious, but rather to their vernacular religious behaviour and beliefs”
(Heidl 2024: 38).
Event religion can be examined along four dimensions:
1) Spatiotemporality: how the participants perceive the place and time of the event;
2) Symbols: how the participants relate to the objects, motifs, symbols, and the symbolic
message of the event;
3) Community: how visitors form a community through shared programmes and exercises;
4) Inward experience: what experiences one lives through during the festival, in community
or alone, and what characteristics can describe these experiences.
The four dimensions can reveal the religionesque aspects of the experience without
claiming that they are religious. Whether or not they are religious depends on the indi-
vidual interpretation. Without the interpretation, but with certain characteristics, they stay
religionesque (Heidl 2023d). This approach was developed at the Everness festival based on
repetitive empirical fieldwork and theoretical framework in my earlier works (Heidl 2023c,
2024), where the examination of the four dimensions revealed the conceptual framework
was applicable to the event studied. This article summarises the results of applying the event
religion approach to two other festivals in Hungary, a Catholic music event (Lélek festival,
Szombathely) and a metal-rock music festival (Fekete Zaj, Mátrafüred-Gyöngyös), in order
to show the applicability of the event religion approach in other settings.
INTRODUCING THE FESTIVALS
The Lélek festival
was held for the first time on the Pentecost weekend of 3–5 June2022.
3
The event, which has its roots in Catholicism, has an ecumenical approach and is open to
members of all Christian denominations, with a strong influence from the Charismatic
Church. The event was organised by a local diocesan youth worker in a Catholic school. The
programmes started on Friday afternoon with worship and a concert. On Saturday morn -
ing, visitors could attend workshops on religious topics, dance classes, and lectures. In the
afternoon, there was a Holy Mass, lectures, concerts, and in the evening a DJ played until 2
am. On Sunday, the whole event was moved to a cinema, where a theologian held a lecture
about Pentecostal movements, followed by worship and a concert.
Around 600 people registered for the event. The age distribution of the participants
covered a broad range, with larger groups of those around 14 and of young parents (aged
3
Lélek means “spirit” and “soul” in Hungarian, referring to the Holy Spirit. Website: https://lelekfesztival.martinus.hu/.
17 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
Sára Eszter Heidl
Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
around 30–40). The reason for this was that the younger age group (14–18-year-olds) con-
sisted mainly of students who came to the festival to receive Confirmation in the Catholic
Church. According to observations, there were slightly more women at the event, but no
precise data were collected. In addition to the organisers, student volunteers, priests, monks,
and nuns were also present. The invited speakers included Christian pop musicians, a poet,
and an event organiser.
The Fekete Zaj festival
(17–20 August 2022) has been held annually since 2009.
4 It
represents an experimental, techno, metal, rock, underground, alternative rock musical line.
The festival was attended by 900–1000 visitors per day, with a roughly equal number of men
and women (women were over-represented among the respondents). The festival site was a
campsite with mobile homes and tents. There were three stages inside the festival area and
two stages outside, one on a small island in Lake Sástó and one further into the forest under
a lookout tower. As the campsite is located in the Mátra mountain range and is surrounded
by forest, there was hardly any data or phone signal in the whole festival area. Many people
saw this as a positive thing, helping them to get away from the ‘real’ world, but it certainly
made it difficult to communicate with each other.
The programmes started on W ednesday evening with metal concerts. In the following
days, the visitors could attend so-called OFF-programmes, which included football, excur-
sions, chess tournaments, boardgames, yoga (including “dark yoga” to metal music), litera-
ture and DIY workshops. The concerts started in the afternoon. From Thursday on, many
different music genres were featured as indie folk, indie rock, hard rock, and different metal
bands performed. The biggest day was Saturday, with mainly metal concerts in the evening.
METHODOLOGY
The empirical work included moderate participation and observation (Spradley 2016), thick
description (Geertz 1973), and semi-structured interviews at both events, ten at the Lélek
festival, fifteen at the Fekete Zaj festival. The youngest interviewees at the Lélek festival were
fourteen, the oldest was 59 years old. In terms of education, they were in secondary school
or had started university education, while older respondents were university graduates with
full time employment. The interviewees were locals, from surrounding settlements and from
Budapest. The youngest Fekete Zaj interviewees were 27 years old, the oldest were 48. Peo -
ple over the age of 35 mainly came with their families, and there were similar proportions of
couples and singles. In terms of education, most of them were university or college gradu-
ates. A large number of people lived in Budapest (regardless of their registered address) and
in county towns. The participants were mainly people with full-time employment.
4
Fekete Zaj means “Black Noise” in English. Black noise means complete silence. It is an ironic name as the concerts at the fe-
stival are usually very loud metal or rock performances. It can also refer to the musical genre “noise”, and “black” can refer to
the metal and gothic subculture, to the love for the colour black, to the night and darkness, and to the absurd and grotesque.
Website: https://www.feketezaj.hu/.
18 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
All Lélek interviewees were Catholics, while among the Fekete Zaj interviewees –
besides one Catholic and one Protestant – there were atheists, spiritual but not religious,
non-denominational, or those who refused any religious labels (indicated in the text as non-
religious). The interview questions had previously been developed and tested in a different
environment (Everness mindfulness festival, Siófok-Sóstó (Heidl 2023c, 2024)), therefore
the deductive method was used in the settings discussed in this paper.
The interview topics were the following:
5 1. What does [name of the festival] mean to you?
2. Which areas do you like to visit? (Which ones do you not like?)
3. How do you perceive the festival area?
4. How do you perceive time during the festival?
5. Which objects and motifs do you consider important at the event?
6. How can you connect with others?
7. What experiences and feelings do you have during a practice/concert/during the festival?
THE RELIGIONESQUE DIMENSIONS OF THE LÉLEK FESTIVAL
Spatiotemporality
Investigating the event religion dimensions starts with the spatiotemporal aspects. The
role of the calendar and the schedule, as well as the repetitive and transient nature are the most
important temporary characteristics of an event (T urner 1977; Zerubavel 1981). The partici -
pants’ experience of time at a festival can reveal ritualistic characteristics. Arriving to a time
out of time, and a space out of space, such as a festival, makes it possible to interpret this period
as a liminal phase (van Gennep 1960; T urner 1978). This is a common approach in festival
studies (Kirchner 2011). Furthermore, the participants’ experiences about the different prop -
erties, aspects, or dynamics of space (Knott 2005, 2014) can reveal a heterotopic nature (Fou-
cault, 1994). People visit an event in a role similar to tourists or pilgrims – even if the event
itself or the people themselves are not religious (Stausberg, 2011). These characteristics can be
understood from a religious studies perspective and described as religionesque (Heidl 2024).
The Lélek festival provided a setting where the religious aspect was obvious: the par-
ticipants belonged to Christian denominations, and the main purpose of the event was to
celebrate the Holy Spirit. In this setting, the event religion dimensions do not show whether
the religious/religionesque aspects are present, but rather in what these aspects are mani-
fested and how their religion is lived (Primiano 1995).
Examining how time and space became special for the visitors showed that personal
interpretation was more important than institutionalised religious background. The Lélek
5
In the interview excerpts quoted throughout the paper, all the names used are pseudonyms.
19 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
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Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
festival was organised around the Christian calendar, as it was the celebration of Pentecost,
but it was not strictly linked to it. In a festival setting, the Christian holiday is reinterpreted,
allowing visitors to experience it more freely and non-traditionally. These events have fewer
rules, are more spontaneous, take place outside the church (Povedák 2014) and have their
own purpose: community-building and event-experience, similarly to non-religious festi-
vals, providing a platform for lived or vernacular religion.
In terms of how the participants perceived the festival area and time, most responses
showed that people experienced the event as an escape from everyday worries and work, as
a place to relax, rather than as a religious celebration. The religious part was just an added
bonus: by attending the event, they were also fulfilling their religious duties.
Q: How do you experience this time period?
A1: Y ou relax and recharge (Gabriella, female, 34, local).
A2: And a Holy Mass is maybe only 3/4 of an hour of your life, but here [...] you really loosen up
a little and relax a bit from the weekdays (Alida, female, 55, local).
Besides the event-feeling, this period provided a quasi-liminal phase (T urner and
T urner 1978; Stausberg 2011), an occasion that exists in a “time out of time” . The area rein -
forced this feeling.
I think it’s more relaxed and freer here than going to church, so it’s not so strict that you have to
stay in your place for the whole time, you can walk around, there are no fixed rules. There is a
schedule, yes, just like at any other festival, but compared to weekdays, it’s actually completely
different. (Mira, female, 21, small town, volunteer)
The church building appeared as a more rigid space, with its rules and boundaries. For
some people this was important to experience the “sacred space” , while for others it made it
harder to experience the specialness. The sense of “sacredness” (or religionesque nature) at the
Lélek festival was evident regardless of the lack of “church rules” . Whether this was due to the
presence of either God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, or something else, was not always clear.
There was a departure from the church, and a constant change and rearrangement of
the space, e.g. walking around freely, a DJ in the evening, and dancing until late at night. Danc-
ing, jumping, and singing popular Christian music was part of the event religion experience.
It was also special because of the way it brought the church into the space: the participants did
not go to the cathedral for the Saturday mass, but brought the church into their own religion-
esque place, as if to prove the “power-fullness” (Knott 2005: 162) of the liminal space. Thus,
it is not the “sacred space” (the church) that makes the period special to the participants, but
the liminal space that becomes special through the actions and perceptions of the participants.
Symbols
As symbols, objects, and images usually play a prominent role in Christianity, it was
necessary to investigate what motifs and objects were important to the participants at the
20 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
Lélek festival. One of these symbols was the cross. In the Catholic tradition, the cross sym-
bolises the death and resurrection of Jesus, and wearing it as an accessory shows the believ-
er’s identity, their belonging to the Christian community. Some wear it as a magical object,
which shows vernacular religious characteristics ( Johanson and Jonuks 2015; T an 2002).
At the Lélek festival venue, there was no emphasis on religious symbols. As it was
held in a Catholic school, there were naturally some Christian motifs, including pictures
and a small chapel inside the building. However, the gym was not decorated with religious
symbols, there was no cross, and an altar was only placed on the stage during the Holy Mass
on Saturday. Most of the participants did not feel the absence of religious symbols. They
attributed a material value to the motifs and objects, and emphasised that the religious
“vibe” was due to the atmosphere, the programmes and the community.
Here, practically at the moment the programme starts, I think it’s different. It already permeates
the whole thing, [...] now this room is not a gymnasium, but practically like a large church inte-
rior. [...] Maybe there is a cross [missing]. But somehow I absolutely did not miss the cross. [It is
special] because of the people and the atmosphere. (Albert, male, 59, local)
Especially for young visitors, the absence of religious semantics created a more open
environment than a church building.
It is easier for young people if they see less [symbols] and they don’t associate it with all kinds of
things, like Christian paintings and pictures. Maybe this way they feel liberated more easily. (Tim,
male, 21, local, volunteer)
Some visitors missed a few symbols, for example, the sacrament, but not its materiali-
ty, rather its meaning (the presence of the Lord in it). This means that the symbolic message of
the event was more important than the material objects. Hartmut Rosa explains that reject-
ing material objects can help to find resonance (i.e. a strong connection through a peak-expe-
rience with something or someone) with more important things – values, experiences or the
subject of belief (Rosa 2019: 228). In such cases, non-material things that are not essentially
religious – such as space, time, community – take on religionesque significance (Heidl 2024).
Community
Most researchers examine the presence of collective effervescence (Durkheim 1964)
and communitas (T urner 1977) at an event when approaching it from a religious studies
perspective. At the Lélek festival, these were evident in the religious ritual that bound people
together through the practice of a common faith.
At the beginning of the concert, we pray for the musician. Y oung people make videos, sing, hold
each other’s hands during the concert and worship, some of them raising both arms to the sky.
(Research diary notes, Lélek festival, 2022)
The free body movements expressing joy, liberation and affection generated the
21 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
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Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
characteristics of collective effervescence and communitas. These programmes helped par -
ticipants to immerse themselves, to “get-drawn-into-something” and “let go” (Schüler 2017:
368), even if it meant stepping out of their comfort zone.
Q: What do you think of the community?
A2: Everyone has a good time. They are participating, clapping and singing. It was good to sing
with the others because I don’t have a good voice, but here I sing with the crowd all day, so actu-
ally... music and singing have a positive effect on everyone, including me. It’s a stress reliever
(Gabriella, female, 34, local).
A1: It awakens spiritual thoughts in a person. Reassurance, reminiscence (Alida, female, 55, local).
The role of transgression can also be considered at a festival. In the context of the
Lélek festival, transgression means deregulation (Steiner 2022: 118), stepping out of tradi -
tional church rules, with characteristics such as dancing late into the night, free movement,
and breaking the event out of the institutional framework. Spontaneous singing, walking
around freely, letting people get close to you and even touching them are all characteristics
that are not present in the everyday religious practice of the participants.
It is not only through the shared programmes that someone can have a religion-
esque experience. On the one hand, the dancing, singing, and the community of the festival
generate religionesque experiences, and on the other hand, the personal experiences of the
individual are reflected in the crowd. The inward experience and the common experience
thereby influence each other.
Inward experience
When talking about inward experiences at a Catholic event, the experience of a connec-
tion with the Holy T rinity is the most obvious topic of discussion. However, the presence of
God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit was mentioned by only a few interviewees. Therefore, if it was not
mentioned, I asked directly if they felt a connection with God. There were two types of answers.
For some it was obvious that God was present, so they did not mention it, while for others the
experiences were simply not God-experiences. One of the interviewees explained this, point-
ing out that these experiences are uncontrollable (Rosa 2019) and ineffable ( James 2008).
Q: W ould you say that you also felt a connection with God?
A: Y es. Y es, you know, it’s like when you think about something and you don’t think about it at
the same time. So when I really want it, it’s definitely not going to happen... then suddenly it
happens and I realise ‘oh well, there it is’ (Albert, male, 59, local).
Regardless of the divine experience, the role of inner feelings was important at the
Lélek festival. The free expression and sharing of inner experiences were encouraged during
the praise and worship, especially by members of the Charismatic Church. It was often pos -
sible to hear someone shouting or crying freely during a common prayer or concert. Some
would cry out the name of God. These experiences could also be shared on stage.
22 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
The inward experiences were mostly associated with freedom, joy, strength that can
help one cope with the task at hand. These characteristics imply the feeling of flow, Mihály
Csíkszentmihályi’s well-known theory (Csíkszentmihályi, 2009). Csíkszentmihályi, similar
to Rosa, described an experience that takes the person into a liminal space, a time out of
time, where the person discovers a different, but more real reality. Interestingly, the experi -
ences described by the above scholars reflect the characteristics of William James’ mystical
experiences ( James, 2008). This proves that “removing” the experience from the religious
does not mean that the experience itself is not religionesque.
THE RELIGIONESQUE DIMENSIONS OF THE FEKETE ZAJ FESTIVAL
6 The Fekete Zaj festival, as a non-religious, primarily music event, provided an appropriate
setting for continuing the comparative analysis. The aim of comparing the two festivals is to
show that similar experiences can occur at a religious and a non-religious event, which means
that religion can be interpreted as an experience. The lived/vernacular religious approach pro -
motes this idea, and the event religion approach supports it. My aim is to show that regardless
of their religious or non-religious interpretation by the participants, the experiences can have
religionesque aspects. This does not mean that the experience is religious or that religion is
present at the event. Rather, it means that the participants encounter religionesque features
of the experience, which can result in interpreting them as religious, or describing them with
religious semantics, regardless of the participant’s own belief or denomination.
Spatiotemporality
The liminal nature of the festival area and period enables the participants to approach
the event as something special. Festival participants enter a temporary space that they expe-
rience physically and mentally during the event (Knott 2005). In the research conducted at
Fekete Zaj, the interviewees without exception described these few days as a special time.
They perceived time differently, the outside world and everyday life did not matter. How -
ever, its religionesque nature became evident when the interviewees started to describe it
with religious semantics. They compared it to Christmas, describing the festival as sacred,
the most important time of the year.
Actually, it’s always the highlight of the year. It comes very early... or very late, [laughs] and goes very
quickly [laughs]. So for me it’s like ‘ Advent for the whole year’ and it culminates here. So, it’s such
a sacred time for me [laughs]. Time passes differently here. (Erik, male, 34, Budapest, non-religious)
The festival was a special day in the calendar, visitors prepared for it for weeks or
months, or even began waiting for the next one as soon as the last one was over. Its liminal
nature was recognised by the interviewees:
6
Some parts of this subchapter are paraphrases of an already published Hungarian article, Heidl 2023a.
23 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
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Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
In this period, you are disconnecting, and then there is a space and a time that only exists here.
(Petra, female, 43, Budapest, non-religious)
For visitors from Budapest in particular, nature played a prominent role. Nature as a
space evoking religious feelings is not a unique phenomenon. One of the main elements of reli-
gious tourism and pilgrimage is the connection with nature, its meditative character. The place-
ment of man-made buildings and objects into nature means a special point of connection for
individuals and the subject of their belief (Mitev, Irimiás and Michalkó 2017; Stausberg 2011).
Many interviewees mentioned the spiritual, transcendent power of nature (Heidl 2023a).
Symbols
At a music festival, the focus regarding symbols is on festival merchandise. Previous
research has shown that logos, images, and objects (wristbands, cups, bags and other mer-
chandise) used at a festival help create a sense of community and belonging (Kirchner 2011).
Festival graphics and design are important for both organisers and participants. Creating a
brand for the festival helps with promotion and marketing. Participants are happy to support
the event by buying its products, and wearing its symbol gives them a sense of belonging.
The Fekete Zaj logo is unique in that its design changes from year to year. It was origi-
nally two squares intertwined to form a circle (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The Fekete Zaj logo. Facebook: Fekete Zaj Fesztivál.
Each year the design incorporates the original image to some extent, but always pre-
sents a new visual world and achieves a different effect. The dominant colours are black, white
and red, with the addition of green for 2022, symbolising the forest and nature (Heidl 2023a).
24 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
Q: And what do you think this symbol means?
A: I always see the moon in it, so the night, geometry, order, but more the calming and self-evident
side of all of this, not the scary part of the darkness, but rather its inclusiveness (Cintia, female,
27, Budapest, Protestant).
Many people described togetherness as the main meaning of the logo, others the con-
nection of opposites. It essentially meant unity that exists at the event outside everyday life,
that is open to everyone, regardless of their appearance, music taste or subculture. These per-
sonal interpretations show what Fekete Zaj itself means to the participants, because accord-
ing to the main organiser, the logo does not really have an original meaning (Heidl 2023b).
Most participants have kept festival merchandise to feel part of the community and
the festival has become part of their identity. The identity- and community-forming aspect of
the event through its symbolism shows parallels with the functional role of religion (Durk-
heim 1964) in religious groups, sects, and pseudo-religions (Tillich 1963). The fact that many
interviewees had tattoos, clothing, and accessories associated with the event demonstrates
this. Religious semantics also appeared here. Cintia said she places the Fekete Zaj objects in
her home, which therefore becomes the sanctuary of her “own, private mythology” .
Community
The most prominent keywords regarding the collective experience were safety, self-
identity, and community.
For me, this is the only festival so far where I know that if I have a problem, I can ask anybody for
help, I can talk to anybody. (Anna, female, 36, Budapest, non-religious)
During a joint programme, many explained that they had a shared experience with
the crowd. Feeling the same energies, unity and immersion came to the fore.
Q: How do you feel when other people are around you during a programme?
A: W ell, actually it relaxes me. I think the musical environment is good for you to immerse
yourself in and become part of a community. The people around us... actually, if I wanted to
over-mystify the question, I could say that at this time the person merges with the energies around
them (Benjamin, male, 48, county seat, non-denominational).
The characteristics of immersion, of being drawn into the event and letting go (Schül-
er 2017), are clearly found in Benjamin’s description. Others have highlighted ritualistic
characteristics.
That we’re moving and dancing to the same music in the same way in such a large unit, just
because of the musical experience, it gives me such a tribal atmosphere [feeling]. (Erik, male, 34,
Budapest, non-religious)
As can be seen from the interviews above, the shared experience and collective cohe-
sion were felt by most people in the music programmes. Rook explains that aesthetic experi-
25 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
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Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
ences can often generate ritual behaviour. For him, a heavy metal concert is a less aesthetic
situation, but he still recognises its ritual character (Rook 1985: 254). For the Fekete Zaj par -
ticipants, the heavy metal concerts generated an elevated, even meditative state. They consid-
ered this music genre to be the most suitable for experiencing their innermost feelings, which
were often accompanied by crying and shouting. The study of this music genre has produced
a significant body of literature in sociology and the study of religion (Brown et al. 2016;
Granholm 2011; Moberg 2009, 2012; Scott 2012, 2014;). Metal music revolves around the
themes of darkness, transgression, rebellion and taboo, not only in its symbolism (for exam-
ple, the representation of death, which helps to bring out the “dark side” of the individual
(Barratt 2016: 228)), but also in its musical style. Crying, screaming and yelling are the very
first means of expression that humans use as infants, and later in life they use these tools to
release emotions, stress, anger, and trauma. It is no coincidence that fans of the metal music
genre often report a sense of liberation and the meditative nature of the music. Listening to
metal music is emotionally therapeutic (V asan 2016: 266, paraphrased from Heidl 2023a).
Inward experience
As mentioned above, the common experiences influence the inward experiences
and vice versa. The inward experiences, similar to the Lélek festival, showed characteris-
tics of James’ mystical experiences ( James 2008), Csíkszentmihályi’s flow (Csíkszentmihályi
2009), and Rosa’s resonance (Rosa 2019), regardless of religious belonging. When describing
their personal feelings and experiences, the interviewees mainly emphasised feelings of joy,
euphoria, liberation, freedom, ecstasy, catharsis, awe, upliftment, gratitude and happiness.
The experience of ecstasy catches you at concerts, that can be good. If I really like the song, I don’t
even care if I’m alone at the concert, I’ll fly out of myself. (Kevin, male, 38, county seat, atheist)
Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of flow has become so widespread in everyday life that the
term flow even appears in individual use, changing its original meaning in some way. In eve-
ryday language, the interpretation of the flow experience is closer to the uncontrollable,
intangible positive feeling that Rosa and James talk about, as can be seen in the following
interview excerpt.
I really like to feel that sense of flow that draws you in and you can really immerse yourself in it.
[...] It takes you with it or takes you in such a way [...] that you get a bit lost in time. A good concert
is when I don’t... I don’t pay attention to how long it lasts, what is next, what came before, but I
can only pay attention to what is going on there. (Petra, female, 43, Budapest, non-religious)
Whether the feeling is described as spiritual or religious is a matter of individual
interpretation. However, the characteristics of the experiences are religionesque, regardless
of interpretation and denominational affiliation.
Uh, it’s such a feeling of joy, euphoria, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it spiritual, especially not
26 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
because I’m a convinced atheist, so eh. I’m reserved when it comes to spiritual things, it’s not my
world, but still, the power of live music... It gives me something extra. (Kevin, male, 38, county
seat, atheist)
What the presence of a “higher power” is manifested in also varies from individual to
individual. There were those for whom it meant nature, the universe, energies. Listening to
metal music gave Cintia, who is a Protestant, the same feelings as a church ceremony.
V ery often I have such sacral feelings and intuitions [...] it’s really like I’m at a religious ceremony
and then I really feel that [the same feeling] goes through everyone, maybe this is exactly what was
called, I don’t know, a thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit. (Cintia, female, 27, Budapest, Lutheran)
Cintia’s description shows that religion can be interpreted as an experience. She
believes that everyone has the same experiences, they just refer to them differently.
CONCLUSION
In this article, event religion was used as a framework to examine the participant experience
in the research of festivals and events. The exploration of the meaning of space and time,
symbols, collective and personal experiences at the examined festivals show temporary com-
munities that generate religionesque feelings and impressions.
Breaking away from everyday life and crossing boundaries helped individuals find
self-identity and relaxation at the events. At the Catholic Lélek festival and the Fekete Zaj
music festival I have shown that non-religious features (space, time, community) can take on
a religionesque character.
The Lélek festival participants lived through religious experiences not primarily
through religious semantics, but through the dimensions examined. At the Fekete Zaj festi-
val, religious semantics were used to describe non-religious features. For example, some par-
ticipants stated that a metal concert reflects tribal and religious rituals, elements of which
also appeared in the personal experience of many visitors. This can be supported by apply-
ing theories such as the mystical experience ( James 2008), flow (Csíkszentmihályi 2009),
and resonance (Rosa 2019) to the experiences described by the interviewees. These theories
show the elements and characteristics of religion-related experiences, which I interpret as
religionesque experiences.
This comparative analysis showed that these elements can commonly be found in the
participants’ experience during the festivals studied, regardless of interpretation, traditional
religions and denominations. The examination of the four fundamentally non-religious
dimensions – spatiotemporality, symbols, community, and inward experience – showed that
traces of religion can be found in both events, not only in the context of religious semantics
but also in the non-religious context, and thus revealed religionesque characteristics.
27 leto 2, št. 1, februar 2024
Sára Eszter Heidl
Applying the Conceptual Framework ‘Event Religion’
to Two Hungarian Festivals
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POVZETEK
Prispevek predstavlja primerjalno analizo dveh empiričnih terenskih raziskav, opravljenih
na Madžarskem. Cilj uporabe pristopa dogodkovne religije je prepoznati vidike festivala –
ne glede na to, ali je religiozen ali ne – ki so lahko z orodji religijskih študijev interpretirani
kot povezani z religijo oziroma religioneskni. V prvem poglavju so na kratko predstavljeni
osrednji vidiki razširjenega raziskovanja festivalov v sodobni literaturi, nato so opredeljene
štiri dimenzije dogodkovne religije. V drugem poglavju sta predstavljena proučevana festi-
vala na Madžarskem: Lélek v Sombotelu in Fekete Zaj v Mátrafüredu v Gyöngyösu. Dogod-
ka se zelo razlikujeta tako po zasnovi in slogu kot tudi po programu in udeležencih, vidiki
dogodkovne religije pa so podobni: poseben čas in prostor, liminalna narava, simbolično
sporočilo dogodka, grajenje skupnosti, sprostitev in odmor od vsakdanjega življenja so
najpomembnejši vidiki časovno zamejenega dogodka. Na festivalu Lélek so dimenzije
dogodkovne religije pokazale, da religiozni vidiki ne izvirajo nujno iz prisotnosti cerkve,
religioznih simbolov ali verskih dejavnosti, temveč iz začasnosti dogodka, možnosti za
sprostitev in skupnostnih programov. Udeleženci niso bili prikrajšani za religiozno seman-
tiko, okoliščine so jim omogočile, da so se povezali med seboj in s svojim predmetom vero-
vanja. Religiozna glasba je nekaterim pomagala doseči višje stanje. Medtem ko nekateri
niso zaznavali božje navzočnosti, je bil za druge Bog prisoten tudi ob nereligiozni glasbi
in programu. Na festivalu Fekete Zaj, v nereligioznem okolju, so dimenzije pokazale, da so
celo nereligiozni udeleženci izkusili vidike dogodka, ki bi jih lahko opisali kot religioneskne.
T o se je izražalo na primer v dejstvu, da so za opisovanje svojih izkušenj uporabljali religi-
ozno semantiko in poudarjali ritualne, svete in duhovne vidike. Analiza je pokazala, da so
dimenzije dogodkovne religije primerne ne le za odkrivanje, ali ima neki dogodek religiozni
30 SVETOVI / WORLDS V ol. 2, Nr. 1, February 2024
vidik, temveč tudi, kako religioneskni značaj dojemajo udeleženci: štiri temeljno nereligi-
ozne dimenzije zajemajo značilnosti, ki jih najdemo pri dogodkih vseh vrst in oblik, ter tako
razkrivajo religioneskne karakteristike. Pristop dogodkovne religije lahko osvetli religijo z
drugega zornega kota: ne kot institucijo ali vero v določeno višjo moč, ampak kot izkušnjo.