Crowding as Codestruction in Festivals: Scale, Cocreation, and Transformation in La Mucada, Mallorca

Transformational community festivals thrive on the active participation of multiple stakeholders as cocreators. However, maintaining such cocreative participation becomes increasingly challenging when festivals grow, creating a paradox. The feature that initially makes transformational festivals attractive–the possibility of an autonomous, heterotopic festival space for cocreation–is threatened by the festival’s success. This article investigates the impact of scale on transformative cocreative festival spaces. Using the example of the new festive traditions of La Mucada in Mallorca, this article asks why cocreative participation is more difficult when festivals become commodified and crowded. Overcrowding is a critical barrier to cocreation and an example of codestruction in festivals. However, its negative impact, particularly on participation and generational change, is not well understood. To thrive, autonomous festivals must address the sociality of crowds as a positive experience and avoid reducing creativity to an individual process, instead promoting collective cocreation.