engleski

The social aspects of the music street festival "C'est is the best" in Zagreb

The aim of this paper is to show the social role of a music street festival in the local community, particularly in processes of shaping a social sustainable city. It is important because it has become an example of a postmodern transnational organized festival. This paper is based on content analysis of newspaper articles relating to the festival and also on interviews with participants in this event. In the analysis the authors selected several main participants: cultural and art performers, local community participants, local government institutions, and tourists. In the introduction, this paper gives a short review of the tradition of street musicians in Zagreb and the history of this particular festival which has developed from an informal street art expression toward an institutionalized art event. In the interviews, participants evaluated the social role of the street festival for urban development and opportunity which the festival brings in their specific neighbourhood area such as the historical city centre. The paper also investigates the possibilities of rehabilitating and revitalizing the city centre through such activities. There is an emphasis on the importance of communication through creativity in the process of the street’ s social life, especially taking participants’ perspective into account. Namely, their experiences in creating social life constitute them as important social partners in the activity of the local community. In addition, the social role and relevance of public communication through urban festivities (in the assessment of vital problems of social sustainability of the historical district) are emphasized. Another important aspect is the use of public space. Namely, the main city squares where the festival occurs are dominant places for performances because of greater possibilities for public communication. These are the most crowded places in town and places where messages are received faster than elsewhere. It is a modern street festival but participants sometimes play with traditional elements. In combining tradition with modern components they achieve a revitalization of cultural identity and realize a huge production of new stories and performances. It only depends on the creative potential of the performer. New festivals make a public scene that is more open and closer to postmodern cultural styles. On the bases of this process anybody can tells or chooses a story. Furthermore, festivals, backed by the media, tourist industry and other social actors participate in producing a cultural scene. On the other side, local community creates and rebuilds their cultural identity with the aid of festivals. This is also the way in which the local community represents themselves to a domestic and international audience.

street festival; local community; social identity; Zagreb

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