Abstracts
Abstract
The first Pécs International Folkest took place in 1986 and was funded by the various state agencies existing in the years of socialism. Today the festival still continues, although like all festivals it has gone through some tricky patches over the years. This article examines, through newspaper cuttings, archive materials and the inaccurate memories of the many organisers, how it has survived the transfer from one state-dominated regime to another based on a new capitalism that has pushed cultural events, always an important part of the socialist political voice, into the background.
Résumé
Le premier Folkest international de Pécs a eu lieu en 1986. Il a été mis sur pied par les différents organismes gouvernementaux qui existaient dans les années du socialisme. Aujourd’hui, le festival continue toujours, même si, comme tous les festivals, au fil des ans, il a été l’objet de savants rafistolages. Cet article analyse, par le biais de coupures de presse, de documents d’archives et de l’imprécise mémoire de nombreux organisateurs, comment il a pu survivre au transfert d’un régime d’Etat dominant à un régime fondé sur le nouveau capitalisme qui a écarté les événements culturels, des événements qui, en fin de compte, avaient toujours été un élément important dans la perspective politique socialiste.
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Appendices
Reference
The present essay could never have been written without the assistance of Béla Keresztény, the archivist of the group Szélkiáltó, who like a conscientious magpie has collected memorabilia of every performance of the group, which luckily for me appeared on nearly every occasion there was a Folknapok. Together, like a frustrating jigsaw, they have at once produced a picture of continuity and change.
I am also indebted to Gyuri Brandstatter, whose misplaced belief that the county “had something to do with the festival” led him on a detective hunt that eventually provided me with Pécs University documentation of the financial arrangements of the Fourth and Fifth Folk Days.
My thanks also to Sanyi Csizmadia, whose unpublished article of 1986 I have quoted, I hope accurately, in my English translation. Others have been kind enough to proffer assistance. Still others have disappeared into the distance. But if he sees a certain Greek trio on the horizon that he never paid because the festival had just bankrupted him, the organizer of the seventh had better move very quickly in the opposite direction.