Grape Harvest Festival in the Town – A Successful Format for Entertainment, Politics, Trade, and Consumption (The Case of Pezinok, in the Slovak Republic)

Abstract

This article focuses on a three-day town celebration called Vinobranie (Grape Harvest), which takes place in the public space of the town of Pezinok in Western Slovakia. This eventis over eighty years old and was established the representatives of the town in collaboration with the local wine-growing association, organised with the support of the state railway company. The grape harvest festival is a mosaic of various elements with symbolic contents, representing an impressive whole wrapped in an offer of a varied programme and consumption. The study observes the changing form and structure of the festival from its origins up until the present day, as well as the dynamics of the range of its functions in the local community. The author follows an ethnological perspective. She draws on historical archive documents and ethnographic materials. In her analysis, she applies the concept of festival (Waldemar Cudny’s ‘Festivalisation of Urban Spaces’, 2016).