Urban Folklore and Folk Crafts Festivals in the Context of a Pandemic:The Case of Shumen

Abstract

The study presents the results of an empirical research conducted in the summer and autumn of 2021 in the town of Shumen within the project “Local festivals: a resource of local communities for crisis management,” financed by the Bulgarian National Science Fund. The research focuses on a local folklore and folk crafts festival and, in particular, on the way its organizers and guests define the relationship between its economic rationality and symbolic importance at the level of local identity and as a mechanism of social solidarity of the local community. The role of the festival in local cultural policies is also analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the extent to which festivals may play the role of mobilizing community resources to address significant crises – in particular the effects of the global epidemiological crisis surrounding Covid-19.

Keywords

• local community
• local festival
• folklore
• folk crafts
• cultural policies