'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

[Astromancer]

The High Festivals


The high festivals are a series of artistic festivals arraged along the major routes of the interstellar Grand Tour. These Festivals occure once every few years and feature all sorts of art, entertainment, and Balls of varying grandure and exclusivity. The timing generally reflects the patterns of the Grand Tour itself and is meant to allow those touring to take in large numbers of festivals in sequence.

The main functions of these Festivals, other than the local tourist ecconomy, are to function A) as a marriage mart, bringing together nobles from the far cornners of the 3I (and thus keeping the culture more unified) and B) as a means of channeling provincial artistic talent to the Galactic Capital by that talent getting seen in an important venue (which also makes the 3I's culture more unified). While each festival celebrates the local culture/s the blending and mixing of both nobles and talents stengthens the 3I while gently venting provincial resentments.

Many groups use the festivals as cover for their activities. People come and go to these festivals from across the 3I and further. Some folks come to these festivals from areas beyond the knowledge of the Imperial Survey! And many of the people coming to these festivals are nearly as colorful and loud as a festival themselves. The advantages to those who want to travel unseen are obvious. The average festival is as noisy and hectic as Mardi Gras squared! Thus any plot, sceme, or skullduggery, can have a wild, crazed, yet glamorous, background.