hutsulschyna festivals as a factor of ethnotourism development

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Zhanna Buchko, Anna Kibych
Yuriy Fedkovich Chernivtsi National University
Ukraine
HUTSULSHCHYNA FESTIVALS AS A FACTOR OF ETHNOTOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
Abstract. Festivals are a form of recreation and leisure at the tourist market. In this article, we
categorize festivals into several different types, provide examples of each category of ethnotourismrelated festivals in the Carpathian region, and tell a short history of the festival movement in
Hutsulshchyna. We study the role of different types of festivals in local tourism in the region, discuss
social and economic impact of festivals and festival-related tourism, and address the future of festival
movement in the Carpathians.
Keywords: festival, tourism, festival tourism, ethnotourism, Hutsulshchyna
Introduction
Development of recreation nature-use activities, specifically, tourism and recreational
industry is one of the most important factors of sustainable grown in the Carpathian region.
Recent years exhibit a stable tendency of increase in the flow of tourists and other types of
recreationists in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Tourist interest is sustained by various natural and
geographic aspects of the Carpathians, natural preservancy state of the region and authentic
indigenous culture of the ethnic groups populating these mountains. A modern tourist expects to
use his or her time most effectively, learning as much as possible about the visited location with
minimal effort. Therefore, in addition to nature-based recreation, an important development
factor now can be attributed to the historical and ethnographic appeal of the Ukrainian
Carpathian region. Current concept of developing recreational tourism in the Carpathian region
implies engaging tourists with different interests to come to Hutsulshchyna. An important role
here is played by ethnotourism, since the Carpathians, more than neighboring regions, are a place
of concentration of different resources tied to the life and culture of such ethnic groups as
Hutsuls, Boykys, and Lemkys.
Hutsulshchyna is the most interesting territory in the Ukrainian Carpathians in many
dimensions: landscape-related, biogeographical and ethnographic, it has pristine natural
resources, and it is populated by the peoples with unique autochthonous ethnical customs and
traditions. Within the geocultural space of the Ukrainian Carpathians, Hutsulshchyna has most
prominent cultural landscape, a combination of natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the
land. Originality of Hutsulshchyna and its peoples, the hutsuls, has been formed with particular
territorial isolation. This resulted in preservation of various old-Ukrainian national traditions,
material and spiritual culture that has largely eroded in other regions. Socio-cultural space of
Hutsulshchyna carries traditions and realities of harmony in the interaction between a man and
the nature, the harmony that makes up the basis of Hutsulshchyna’s ethno-cultural heritage,
which draws substantial interest in both home and international tourism and opens perspectives
for the region to become one of the most popular ethnotourism locations in Ukraine and in
Europe. Thus, systematic research of ethnotourist resources as the basis of tourism growth in
Hutsulshchyna and ethnotourism growth in general is important both from practical and
socioeconomic points of view.
The concept of ethnotourism (or ethnic tourism) is increasingly popular in the literature
dedicated to tourism. Most researchers define this concept as a tourist trip motivated by interest
in cultural heritage of ethnic groups or territories. R.E.Wood defines ethnic tourism as
“experience of practices of culture other than the tourist’s own” (Wood 1994). Similar
definitions are given by the authors of “Encyclopedia of Tourism” (Kurek 2007 , Jafari 2000),
that defines ethnotourism as a form of tourism motivated mainly by the study of cultural
differences and by contact with exotic ethnographic communities. The main focus of
ethnotourism is placed in cultures of indigenous communities that are characterized by variety of
ethnographic groups and languages in various regions of the world. A tourist is typically
interested in a specific community, which is appealing to him or her through its cultural values or
practices that are noticeably different from those of the tourist’s culture, either in terms of
lifestyle practices, traditions or cuisine. Everyday life of the ethnic community is significantly
different from the tourist’s everyday life, which is the focal point of his interest in the
community. Even though the concept of ethnotourism does not have a universally accepted
definition, although most available definitions are similar in essence. We would summarize the
definition of ethnotourism as travel aimed at learning of and about certain ethno-cultural
environments, complete with its original characteristics such as traditions, crafts, daily routines,
and culture.
Terms “festival tourism” or “festival tours” are often found in tourist service listings and
are increasingly popular with tourists. However, we have not succeeded in defining these terms
in the tourism-research literature in Ukraine or Russia. Works by Kifyak (Kifyak 2003) and
Aleksandrova (Aleksandrova 2002) do not mention festival tourism at all. Krachylo’s
“Geography of Tourism (Krachylo 1997) introduces culture and entertainment tourism and
mentions trips with the goal of attending festivals and sports events. Shkola (Shkola 2005) also
recognizes learning tours that focus on celebrations, concerts, exhibitions etc, yet the term
“festival” is not mentioned in his works. Festival-event tourism and sports-event tourism are
introduced as subcategories of cultural-entertainment tourism by Beydyk (Beydyk, 2001).
The basis of festival tourism in Ukraine, particularly in Hutsulschyna, is in well-preserved
ethnic and religious traditions (Buchko 2006, Lesyk, Buchko 2007, Hrytsku-Andriesh, Buchko
2010,). Rich cultural heritage of the people populating the Ukrainian Carpathians forms
favorable conditions for establishing ethnotourist trails in the region that take advantage of the
existing network of museums, folk crafts centers, locations of ethnic celebrations and festivals.
The goal of our research is the analysis of festivals in Hutsulshchyna as a precondition for
development of tourism and identifying locations best suited for the organization of traditional
festivals and celebrations.
Festival classification and history
Recent years demonstrate elevated tourist interest in ethnocultural heritage of
Hutsulshchyna. At the same time, the carriers of this culture are themselves making an effort to
preserve, recreate and popularize their traditions. One of the most effective methods for the
tourist business to benefit from the rich folk culture is organization of ethnic festivals. The
number of these festivals is growing annually, leading to the rising need to classify different
festival types. We use the following classification criteria:
1) level (international, national/Ukrainian, regional);
2) occurrence regularity (regular or varying location);
3) content (ethnocultural, folklore-ethnographic, ethno-musical, crafts, ethno-culinary,
humor and comedy, extreme sports, etc).
Based on the above criteria, we would like to describe the following types of festivals:
Ethno-cultural Hutsul festivals. Festival movement in Ukraine began after the country
gained political independence in 1991. The newly gained independence started multiple
processes of changes and transformations, which came with a sudden increase of public activity.
The new stage in the social development of the country was accompanied by the expanding
public interest in its history, culture and traditions. At first, festival movement in Hutsulshchyna
and elsewhere in Ukraine encountered significant hardships. Abolition of the old societal
structures without constructive creation of the new ones, robbing of the country by the old
communist nomenclature, withholding pensions and wages, widespread lawlessness formed
rather unfavorable background for the appearance of new festivals, yet the festival movement
was growing steadily though slowly.
An important date in festival history is September 27, 1991. On that day, the first Hutsul
festival took part on a small polonyna Zapidok (polonyna is a Hutsul word for a highland
pasture). Polonyna Zapidok has long been a popular location for folk gatherings due to its special
spiritual power properties, related to the neighboring 1221 meter high Pysanyi Kamin rock,
formerly a site of an ancient pagan shrine. This festival event is considered as a starting point of
festival movement in the Carpathian region. Subsequent Hutsul festivals took place in
Vyzhnytsya, Chernivtsi region (1992), Rakhiv, Transcarpathian region (1993), Verkhovyna,
Ivano-Frankivsk region (1994), Putyla, Chernivtsi region (1995), Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk
region (1996), Rakhiv, Transcarpathian region (1997), Kosiv, Ivano-Frankivsk region (1998),
Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivsk region (1999), Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region (2000),
Verkhovyna,
Ivano-Frankivsk region
(2001),
Kosiv,
Ivano-Frankivsk
region
(2002),
Vyzhnytsya, Chernivtsi region (2003), Putyla, Chernivtsi region (2004), Rakhiv, Transcarpathian
region (2004), Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region (2006), Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk region
(2007), Vyzhnytsya, Chernivtsi region (2009). In 2008 and 2010 the festival was cancelled
because of catastrophic flooding of large parts of the Carpathian territory.
Hutsul festivals have been used as venues for various academic and research-related
events: research conferences, seminars and roundtables. At times, some of these events served as
a powerful preamble to the festival as a whole, helped highlight both problems of the
Hutsulshchyna regions and shed light on different aspects of indigenous ethnic culture, historical
heritage of the Carpathian region and approaches to its preservation.
During the twenty-year history of ethnocultural Hutsul festivals, the following research
conferences and seminars took place: international applied-scientific conference “Hutsulshchyna:
perspectives of its social, economic and spiritual development in independent Ukraine” (was a
part of the First World Congress of Hutsuls in 1993), international applied-science conferences
“Environmental conditions of developing recreation in Hutsulschyna (Yaremche, 1996),
theoretical and methodological seminar “Hutsulschyna studies as a scientific field and academic
subject” (Kosiv, 1996), international conference “Energy-Environment-Economy” (Rakhiv,
1997), international conference “International aspects of biological variety preservation in the
Carpathians” (Rakhiv, 1997), international conferences “Music of Galicia” and “Hutsulshchyna:
science, education, culture” (Kolomyya, 2000), international conference “Problems of
renaissance and development of material and spiritual culture of Hutsuls” (Verkhovyna, 2001),
conference “The Carpathians: culture, way of life, health of Hutsuls and of Hutsulshchyna” and
“Hutsulshchyna at the turn of the 21st century” (Kosiv 2002), international conference “Rivers
and mountain life” (Vyzhnytsya, 2003), international conference based in the Carpathian
Biosphere Reserve “Environmental and socio-economic aspects of preservation of ethno-cultural
heritage in the Carpathians” (Rakhiv, 2005), local history round table “Kolomyyan
Hutsulshchyna”, presentation of publications about Hutsul villages (Kolomyya, 2006),
international conference “Sustainable development of territorial communities of Hutsul region
through development of tourism industries” (Yaremche, 2007), international conference “Transborder projects and investment policies in the Carpathian region” (Vyzhnytsya, 2009).
The Hutsul Festival is one of the largest, oldest and best known festivals in Ukraine. The
goal of this festival is support and popularization of traditional folk arts, customs and rituals of
the ethnic group of Ukrainians-Hutsuls, advancing social and artist status of authentic folklore,
uncovering ingenious individual and group performers and artists specializing in both fine arts
and decorative arts and crafts. The main task of the festival is to highlight Hutsulshchyna region
problems and to bring forward solutions at all levels including the government level, to elevate
public awareness of Hutsuls and their region, both nationally and internationally, and to facilitate
balanced growth of the region (Buchko 2006).
Below, we describe other popular festivals in the region.
Folklore-ethnographic festivals. Annual international festival “Bukovynski zustrichi”
(Bukovinian rendezvous) is known since 1990. It take place from May to October in Poland,
Romania, Hungary and Ukraine (in Chernivtsi). The festival is attended by those performers
from the participant countries who cultivate Bukovinian traditions. Another festival in this
category is “Na Synevir trembity klychut” (To Synevyr trembitas call). It is organized since 2002
in the Transcarpathian region near the mountain lake Synevyr. The participants present folk
dances and songs. (Lesyk, Buchko 2007). Another annual festival, “Ivana Kupala at Bukovel”
was commenced in 2006 under the aegis of International Council of Organizations of Folklore
Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF). Folk performers from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Slovenia and
Romania came to the mountain resort of Bukovel to demonstrate their traditional dance, songs,
music and games. An unusual yet harmonious culmination of the festival was the evening of
friendship featuring folk group from Bali (India). All participants took part in a group climb of
Mt. Hoverla and gave the concluding gala at its foothills (Buchko, Golcha, Chupak 2006).
Music festivals are most famously represented by the international festival of rock and
world music “Europe-centre”. It takes place in a Transcarpathian town of Rakhiv since 2005,
featuring popular Ukrainian and foreign rock and pop bands. It is the first Ukrainian festival of
European level that brings together known European and Ukrainian artists that play the style of
music known as World Music’s. “Europe-Centre” in Rakhiv is a conceptually new project that
aims both at organizing a large music entertainment show event and at solving several strategic
questions of state cultural policies of Ukraine. Specific questions include cultural and historic
development of different regions in close interaction with high standards of European culture,
promoting Ukrainian arts outside of Ukraine, preservation and actualization of national art
heritage, inclusion of historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine to international tourist routes,
development of cultural tourism that would most effectively utilize rich cultural and natural
potential of Ukraine (Hrytsku-Andriesh, Buchko 2010).
Festival of young performers of modern Ukrainian song “Moloda Halychyna (Young
Galicia) takes place in Novoyavorivsk, Lviv region. It is organized as a contest of young
performers (Lesyk, Buchko 2007). Another festival organized in Skole, Lviv region, is a DJfestival “SkoleDJ”, featuring over ten local DJs.
Music-ethnic festivals are best represented by the International festival of ethnic music
and land-art “Sesori” was first organized in 2003 at a picturesque location of Sesori village in
Ivano-Frankivsk region. Later, the festival was renamed “Art-pole”(Art-Field), and moved to
different locations. The goals of this festival are to support the region’s traditions, folk rituals,
music, and nature, to help the local people to preserve these traditions, and also to promote green
tourism. Conceptually, the organizers position this festival as an example of creative and
balanced coexistence of a person and the world that surrounds her, since ethnic music and landart are the forms of art that are built on this type of mutual understanding. The program of this
festival includes performances by Ukrainian and foreign ethnic music performers and masterclasses of folk land-artists and craftsmen. International festival “Selyska Spivanka” (Selysche
song) takes place in Nyzhnye Selysche village in Khust district, Transcarpathian region. Visitors
to this festival have a chance to play sports, enjoy exhibits of old ethnic theme-related
photographs, observe rich imagination and skills of folk craftsmen, and even participate in bodyart creations. In order to inspire only positive emotions, “Selyska Spivanka” features exclusively
live music based on traditional motives from Ukraine and other European cultures.
Festivals-fairs. These include decorative and utility fairs and ethnic cuisine festivals. The
first type is represented by the “Carpathian Vernissage”, an annual festival in Ivano-Frankivsk
aimed at popularization of folk traditions and regional culture. Presented crafts include woodcarving, weaving, embroidering, pysanka (Ukrainian decorated Easter egg)-painting,
blacksmithing, pottery, basket-weaving, fine arts, lizhnyk (Carpathian traditional wool blanket)
making, etc. The festival provides local residents and visitors with an opportunity to learn more
about folk crafts and traditional trades, helping to preserve cultural indigenousness of the region.
It includes crafts classes taught by the participants, promotions and gifts by the sponsors and
organizers, exhibition-fair of artwork in Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Art museum, music and
dance performances. The category of ethnic cuisine festivals includes the now traditional
bryndza (Central European traditional mountain cheese) festival that takes place in Rakhiv at the
close of each summer highland pasture season. The festival offers rich variety of traditional dairy
products and ethnic arts of the Carpathian region. The visitors have an opportunity to try and
purchase bryndza, vurda (another traditional cheese type), sheep milk cheeses, folk crafts
products. Additional entertainment includes folklore music bands, folk instrument bands, troisti
muzyky (traditional Ukrainian folk music performers) bands. Another cuisine festival “Chervone
Vyno” (Red Wine) takes place in Mukachevo, Transcarpathian region. Festival guests are
welcome to taste and purchase vintages from over eighty wine-makers. A popular festival of
solonyna (Central-European bacon-like pork product) takes place in Mizhhirya, Transcarpathian
region. Since 2006, potato festivals are held in Lazeschyna, Transcarpathian region.
A separate category can be assigned to festivals of Hutsul humor. Festival “Zakharetsky
Garchyk” is held every autumn in Pidzakharychi, Chernivtsi region. (Buzynsky, Nikirsa,
Korzhyk, Buchko 2009). Another known festival of this type is “Berbenyci Figliv”, held in
Yasynia in the Transcarpathian region.
Extreme sports festivals include sports and culture festival “Dragobrat Planet” (Dragobrat
resort near Yasynia, Transcarpathian region), “Mizunska Zvygoda” festival (Novyi Mizun,
Dolyna district, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukrainian winter festival of extreme sports “Hutsulia.
Zyma” (Hutsulshchyna-Winter) (Zaroslyak sports resort near Vorokhta, Ivano-Frankivsk region).
The goal of these events is popularization of health and fitness, support and development of
sports traditional for the Carpathian region, bringing in tourists from other regions of the country.
These festivals typically have an entertainment component, featuring local ethno-music bands.
Conclusions
Festival movement in the Carpathian region started forming after Ukraine gained
independence in 1991. Now, when the economic situation in the country has normalized and
active expansion of tourism industry in the Carpathians is evident, we can observe rapid growth
of the number and variety of festival projects of different kind and scale.
Developing tourism as one of the perspective branches of the Carpathian region economy
entails search for new methods to raise interest and bring in tourists. One of such methods is a
new and interesting subcategory of tourism, ethnographic tourism, popularity of which steadily
grows every year. There is convincing evidence that festivals and similar ethnic-culture related
events became an important aspect of forming the base for national, cultural and economic
renaissance and development of the Carpathian region, effective means of preservation of its
cultural and historic heritage, improving tourist infrastructure of the region and diversifying
tourism market product.
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Huculskie festiwale jak faktor rozwoju etnoturystyki
Zyrys treści: Festiwale są formą rekreacji i wypoczynku na rynku turystycznym. W
artykule podjęta proba kategoryzować festiwale na kilka różnych typów. Podano przykłady
etnoturystycznych festiwalów w regionie karpackim i krótką historia ruchu festiwalowego na
Huculszczyźnie. Wyznyczono role różnych festiwalów w turystyce regionalnej, skutki
społeczne i gospodarcze festiwalów i turystyki związanej z nimi, oraz przyszłość ruchu
festiwalowego w Karpatach.
Słowa kluczowe: festiwale, turystyka, turystyka festiwalowa, etnoturystyka, Huculszczyzna
Жанна Бучко, Анна Кібич
Чернівецький національний університет імені Юрія Федьковича,
Україна
Гуцульські фестивалі як чинник розвитку етнотуризму
Анотація. Фестивалі є формою рекреації та відпочинку на ринку туристичних
послуг. У статті робиться спроба групування фестивалів у кілька різних типів. Наводяться
приклади етнотуристичних фестивалів у Карпатському регіоні та коротка характеристика
фестивального руху на Гуцульщині. Визначено роль різних фестивалів у регіональному
туризмі, аналізується соціальний та економічний вплив фестивалів і фестивального
туризму, перспективи фестивального руху в Карпатах.
Ключові слова: фестиваль, туризм, фестивальний туризм, етнотуризм,
Гуцульщина.
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