Crises in Official and Popular Festivities: on the Cases of Gabrovo, Varshets and Kosti

Abstract

The article analyzes the potential of local festivals to serve as an instrument to overcome crises in three particular case studies, namely Gavrovo's Festival of Humour and Satire, Varshets' Resort, Mineral Water and the Balkan Mountains Festival and Kosti's fire dancing. The analysis is based on the results of an empirical research conducted in the summer of 2021 within the project “Local festivals: a resource of local communities for crisis management,” supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund. The main argument is that in all of these cases the festivals cannot be subsumed under the logic of coping with economic underdevelopment. Nevertheless, the festivals have a direct effect on coping with the coronavirus crises both in terms of the practical realization of its irreversibility, as well as in terms of using it as a medium to renegotiate local contradictions and conflicts. Lastly, the article demonstrates the efficacy (and limits) of Bakhtin's theory of the carnavalesque for the understanding of local festivals' role in coping with crises.