LOCAL COMMUNITY FESTIVALS: URBAN AND RURAL FEATURES

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the specifics of local festivals in different types of communities, distinguished by the indicator of “place of residence” capital, regional city, town and village, pointing out the common features and differences between them. For the realization of this goal, it is necessary to study such important features as: frequency of conduct, thematic focus, activities carried out during the festivals, the subjects that organize and conduct them, the participation of local authorities, institutions, NGOs, media and local people. The leading method in the study of festivals in the text is sociological and its choice is a consequence of the set goal. Object of study are local communities as a specific social construct and social group entity with characteristic social relations, functions, interactions, resources, values and identity. Local festivals are an important element of the lifestyle of local communities; depending on whether the latter are located and developed in an urban or rural environment, the peculiarities, similarities and differences between their festivals are determined. The article analyzes the results of a nationally representative empirical sociological survey conducted on the field in February
March 2023 with 800 respondents throughout the country. It was realized within the project “Local Festivals: A Resource of Local Communities to Deal with Crises”. According to the empirical information received, festivals are more often organized and held in regional centers and cities than in Sofia and the villages. The analysis of the results shows that festivals in regional cities, towns and villages have a more diverse thematic focus and more varied activities are carried out during their conduct than in Sofia. The festivals in the regional centers in their thematic focus are closer to those organized in the towns and villages than to those in Sofia. Their main organizer in all types of local communities is the local government in the face of the municipality or the mayoralty. The chitalishte (literally “reading centers” are important cultural institutions in Bulgarian tradition and contemporary society) has a leading role in the organization of the festivals in the towns and villages, unlike the regional centers and Sofia, where their participation is unremarkable. A kind of “profiling” of the festivalization of contemporary lifestyle is formed according to the type of local communities whether they are in the capital, in the regional centers, in the towns or in the villages. Residents of smaller settlements, such as towns and villages, are more actively involved in the organization and holding of festivals than those from regional centers, and in Sofia their participation is the weakest. In these local communities, local institutions and residents manifest themselves as enterprising social actors, their festivals are really local in nature, organization and holding, they carry the spirit, values, traditions, energy, atmosphere and identity of local people.