Empire, Extraction and Power in the Festivals of Britain of 1951 and 2022

This Element compares the 1951 Festival of Britain with the 2022 Unboxed Festival to explore both continuities and shifts in the British state's relationship to empire, power and extraction as expressed in celebrations of national culture. The ideological projects underpinning these governments, distanced by more than seventy years, might be seen as fundamentally opposed. Yet approaching this comparative study through a conjunctural analysis focusing on the narrations of British identity and both events' wilful intertwining of technology and art reveals the continuities between both periods, especially as they pertain to historical practices of the imperial state and its far-reaching consequences.