Transnationality, Transculturality and Ethnicity: A Look at Balkan Fest, San Diego, California

Abstract

This text is the result of an ethnochoreological and anthropological investigation of folk dance practices at Balkan Fest in San Diego, California (2013 et seq.), in which the Bulgarian community plays a central role. Although Balkan Fest has already been approached in one of my earlier works, and the California Bulgarian community has been addressed in a paper discussing the ‘re-discovery’ of Bulgarian folk dance, there was no focus on transnational and transcultural approaches (and experiences) in these works, which are addressed in the present text; these approaches are adopted here for setting the context and supporting my analysis. Balkan Fest reveals “ways of belonging”, in which Bulgarian music and dance play an important role. This article proposes that, to many of the festival’s attendees, the festival’s campground became a space (a ‘village,’ a ‘home’) where one is physically absent, but spiritually and emotionally present in one’s country of origin. Besides being a playground – both metaphorically and literally – the festival offers various activities for children to retain their Bulgarian ethnic identity (although raised as Bulgarian-Americans). Simultaneously, this is a California ‘Balkan Fest,’ in which people of different backgrounds meet, and where the dance floor becomes a venue for the convergence of various dance traditions.