The Festival as Community Susan Kalcik

When the Smithsonian Folklife individuals nationwide who shared re­ Slicing apples for an apple butter boil is Program staff decided to use "com­ lated traditions but may never have a Festival event that lends itself by nature munity" as the theme of the 1978 met before, such as French speakers to a sense of community. presentation, they were not grafting and musicians from Cajun Photo by James Pickerell for the Smithsonian. an idea onto the Festival, but featur­ and French-Canadian New England. brought to the attention of their ing an aspect of the Festival that has As Olivia Cadaval, Mexican cultural communities as artists and artisans been present throughout its history. liaison for the 1976 Festival, pointed worthy of the attention of the Smith­ "Community" has been involved in out after visiting many of the Mexican sonian, and the question immediately the past 11 festivals in many ways. participants a year later, the didactic arose, then why weren't they also en­ Each participant comes from and nature of the Festival means that joying such prominence here? It was repr~sents a community-the com­ people hear themselves discussed good for both the participants and the munity he or she lives in, or a commu­ through their traditions and commu­ communities." nity of people who are associated with nity, and their community role is high­ The Festival audience also consists of each other because of shared tradi­ lighted for them as well as for the au­ community members, in the sense tional culture. Many Festival pres­ dience. Some see this role affirmed; that all share a kind of entations have been community others realize it for the first time. community and come from particular events: apple-butter making, quilting Their community might also be af­ places and cultures. Festival-goers bees, or a Yemenite wedding. fected by the presentation of in­ have often found that presentations Other Festival events have involved dividuals and groups at the Festival. broaden their knowledge of their own Roger Welsch, folklorist and pre­ community; some learn about the rich senter, said of his experience with variety of our plural culture. Others Susan Kalcik has worked with the Smithsonian In­ German-American participants in learn more about their particular stitution's Folklife Program since 1975. She is a doctoral candidate in folklore and anthropology at 1975 and 1976: "In many cases, per­ community: for example, many the University of , Austin, specializing in formers and craftsmen who otherwise Hungarian-Americans were sur­ American ethnicity. have been ignored suddenly were prised and pleased to learn at the 1976

9 Festival that there was a viable colony of in Louisiana. The Festival, however, not only presents or reflects American com­ munities; it creates a sense of community-both tern porary and long-lasting-on the part of the staff, audience, and participants it brings together. Sometimes people who meet at the Festival become lifelong friends. But even when people only briefly interact, the emotional experi­ ence of sharing some aspect of culture with others often creates a warm sense of commonality between people who have danced a kolo together or tried in vain to make a sound come from a A temporary but often intense sense of shofar. This kind of community, real community is created at the Festival when though temporary, might be termed participants and F estival-goers interact "spontaneous communitas" after Vic­ as this railroader and his young friends tor Turner's usage. are doing, or when Festival participants Why is it that communities, both from different communities get together as traditional and tern porary, are tied so they are doing in this informal jam ses­ closely with festivals? The answer lies sion of musicians. in the nature of festival itself. Festivals Photos by James Pickerell and Richard Hofmeister are complex events, so much so that for the Smithsonian. every individual will experience them differently. The Festival juxtaposes characteristics that are opposites: the planned with the spontaneous, the serious and the playful, order and disorder. The variety of experiences possible at a festival contributes to the sense that the Festival is very different from everyday life, and that anything can happen. One may choose to stroll through as an observer, or play a tam­ buritza and go home, or one may be caught up in intense interactions with people one has never before or might not ordinarily associate with. A com­ mon comment about the Festival is that it brings together factions within and between communities. This kind of interaction is possible because the Festival is neutral territory. "Real life" is suspended and many of its bound­ aries may be crossed safely. Festival is special too because it is a time set aside for celebration and for a · coming together of people, whether it

10 A special kind of closeness often grows up is an organic festival growing out of ing a festival, we also celebrate the among the various people who work on the customs and needs of a commu­ present, the fact and joy of our being the Festival. Here a participant in the nity like a parish patron saint's day, or together, and from this create a new Dunham School program in 1977 gets an organized Festival such as the sense of our community. plenty of advice from staff and other par­ Smithsonian's. ticipants as he takes snapshots of his new Victor Turner, in his exploration of BIBLIOGRAPHY friends during Sunday dinner at the ritual, points out that two senses of Cadaval, Olivia. Folklife Impact on M exican Par­ dormitory. community come together in ritual. ticipants. 1978. Unpublished manuscript. Photo by Nicholas Bacher© 1978. One is "structure" and the other Hawes, Bess Lomax and Susan Kalcik. In Cele­ bration of Ethnicity. Exchange, Vol. XII, "communitas." His insights help us No. 1, 1976, pp. 9-14. see that in the social ritual of festival Spicer, Dorothy Gladys. Folk Festivals and the we celebrate ourselves, the commu­ Foreign Community. : The Womans nity that exists. We explore its past and Press, 1923. the future linked to that past. But be­ Vogt, Evon Z. A Study of the Southwestern Fiesta Boat building by a group of Native System as Exemplified by the Laguna Fiesta. Americans at the 1976 Festival. cause "communitas," especially "spon­ American Anthropologist 57, 1955, Photo by Paul Framer for the Smithsonian. taneous communitas," is possible dur- pp. 820-839.

11