“History’s gone here”: exploring understandings of heritage through forms of social connections within cultural festivals

Abstract eng:
Cultural festivals consist, in the majority, of intangible displays and performances, a great percentage of which could be described as having heritage value, the ‘living expressions and traditions inherited by communities and transmitted to their descendants’ (UNESCO, 2003). In critique of this convention, there is a persuasion in some academic circles that the ‘dominant preservationist norm’ of such institutions may actually fail to safeguard intangible heritage (Duarte, 2010:856/8). This paper considers how this dominant narrative influences perceptions of heritage ‘on the ground’, within the festival hosting communities, including how heritage is perceived to enable connections and cross boundaries between place and people. Through case study examples of small-scale festivals in Northumberland, it considers how heritage is initially (or consciously) perceived and how these perceptions change. It argues that many of the cultural scopes and expressions of creativity within these communities are not primarily or consciously recognised as heritage and thus devalued or ignored both to some degree within that community and by external decision makers. The paper argues for greater recognition of the social and cultural value of these ‘subconscious’ elements of heritage and their contribution to community sustainability.

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