If Pamplona, Spain, were a storybook, its cover image would feature bulls and people running through narrow streets. The city’s identity clings to its annual Running of the Bulls event. Cities around the world celebrate unique and defining moments similar to this one year after year. More than the city’s architecture or landscape, these events, festivals and exhibits are owned by and represent local people. They illuminate the character and the vibrancy of a city. Intertwined with service design, rituals themselves are a service for locals and visitors, but they also rely on a variety of supporting services for execution, to enhance the participation experience and to export to new locations.
However, the rituals depicted on postcards or headlined in newsfeeds are only one side of the story. Behind the scenes, a number of choreographed interactions unfold to produce the public spectacles. Imagine the logistical services required for Ivrea, Italy, to import a large quantity of oranges every year from Sicily for their annual Battle of the Oranges, a carnival where participants throw oranges at one another. Or imagine the services required to transport, feed and accommodate the 120 million pilgrims who participated in the holy Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India, in 2013. For many cities, public transportation services increase capacity to accommodate extra people. Law enforcement teams patrol the event. Sanitation departments account for extra garbage production. Crews set up and take down temporary infrastructure. Often, these supporting services go unnoticed even though they are essential to the main event.
Enabled by mobile devices, services increasingly enhance participants’ experiences of rituals by providing more relevant and personalized information. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Carnival app informs visitors about nearby parties. An app for the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans, USA, uses GPS to track parade locations live and help attendees to time their arrival. The app for South by Southwest, an annual festival of films and other media in Austin, Texas, USA, provides personalized recommendations and helps participants create their own custom agendas. Perhaps in the future, millions of people will attend the same ritual, but everyone will have their own unique experience. This begs the question, if ritual experiences become so personalized, which aspects of the collective experience will be preserved?
Cities that import rituals from other cities must also consider how much of the original formats and qualities should be preserved.
For instance, although Oktoberfest originally began with a royal wedding in Munich in 1810, today cities in Australia, Argentina, China and other countries all produce their own versions of the festival.
Additionally, rituals are also being exported and experienced digitally and on-demand through games such as Crazy Songkran, an app that replicates the experience of building sand pagodas for the Songkran Festival in Thailand. Obviously, the digital version of building a sandcastle vastly differs from the actual feel and experience at the festival but perhaps, as technologies develop, rituals might be more authentically replicated and available on-demand in the future. Imagine feeling the warmth and texture of the sand on-demand, as conveniently as streaming a favorite song into a living room today.
As the world becomes more globalized and interconnected, the tendency might be for cities to become similar to each other, adopting each other’s rituals. But it is important that a city continues to pursue its own unique moments that define its character because these moments entice people to visit or live there. Every citizen should celebrate the moments that cultivate a sense of identity and define his or her city’s narrative. Citizens should ensure that support services such as transportation, law enforcement and sanitation are maintained in order to perpetuate rituals. Service designers should continue to explore the possibilities of making rituals more personalized and on-demand through digital technologies. Ultimately, increased awareness and access to local and foreign rituals will build greater empathy and appreciation of others’ cultures and the character of our cities.
Maximizing the Celebrations at Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival
‘Blocos,’ or street parties, are the main popular expression during the Brazilian Carnival. In contrast to the limited seating and tickets required for the Sambadrome parade, blocos are free and open to the public. With over 500 blocos taking place throughout Rio de Janeiro, it can be difficult to keep track, especially for visitors. Traditionally, the easiest way to find blocos has been to stumble upon them or to ask a local. Today, a variety of mobile applications make planning and finding blocos more accessible and predictable.
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