From Diretas Já to Festival do Futuro

Abstract

The Diretas Já event dialogues with Brazilian historic popular mobilizations and, at the same time, reveals meanings that make it possible to think of the political dimensions of mass movements in a broad spectrum of possibilities. In this regard, looking at its dimension as a celebration and spectacle for democracy, this article seeks to explore the relationship between a recent festive moment in national life: the swearing-in ceremony of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on January 1, 2023 (which ritualized the end of Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government), known as the Festival do Futuro, and the Diretas Já campaign. The Festival do Futuro was a ritual that went beyond the logic of political ceremonial. The planned and predicted celebration was crossed by a group of temporalities and affections, brought together in an idea of communion, materialized beyond the routine formalities of the solemnity of the inauguration. Under this perspective, the article reflects on socio-historical issues related to this event and discusses how the festival became a moment of public sharing, emerging as a celebration and a language, capable of translating, through the presence of bodies in assembly, a form of enchantment that becomes generative and creative of possibilities for the future, just like the Diretas Já, 40 years ago. The reflection seeks to interpret how the experience and media circulation of popular street occupation events such as the Festival do Futuro, on social media profiles, allow perceptions to be shared about collectively imagined futures in contemporary Brazilian society.