One of the community well-being indicators needs to be the frequency and richness of festivals. If we are going to reinvent festivals we need more than those supplied by religious traditions. Festivals are more than concerts, fares or parades. There are transcendent mythologies celebrated and the economic drivers are not figural. The palpable sense of participative creating of experiences eclipses the anemic reduction of people as consumers. Entertainment neither crowds nor dominates conversations animated by the unique energy there.
There can be festivals with and without personal significance to the community or region in which they occur. They can or cannot accompany significant staged or natural events like world games, conferences and gatherings as well as changes in seasons and celebration of unique local flora and fauna.