The New City Festivals: Activities, Organizers, Beneficiaries and Interests on The Occasion of Kapana Fest

Abstract

The festivalization of cities and their transformation into „eventful” centers of the postmodern urban lifestyle has been a global trend since the mid-1990s. The aim of the text is to analyze the features of the new city festivals in Plovdiv by analyzing the Kapana Fest, examining their activities, audience, organizers and beneficiaries and reaching conclusions about their socio-economic and cultural significance. Festivals are a crossroads of a number of interests, whose bearers are different socio-group actors – local government, organizers, participants, visitors, business representatives and residents of the local community. The article presents the results of an empirical sociological research carried out using qualitative methods within the project “Local festivals: A resource of local communities for coping with crises”, funded by National Science Fund – Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Bulgaria (KP-06-H45/5 from 30.11.2020). The research approach used is in the thematic field of social stratification, focusing on the socio-group characteristics and interests of the various actors associated with the festivals. The new city festivals are understood as part of the postmodern lifestyle, with its characteristic consumption patterns and leisure patterns. The question whose answer is sought in the text is: who are the winning socio-group actors from the huge social, economic and cultural potential of the Kapana Fest in Plovdiv?