Keywords: Festivals

This book is a collection of case studies written by authors who have a long term research interest in folk dance festivals as part of their overall research as dance ethnologists, ethnochoreologists or anthropologists. The chapters that follow draw on the authors’ research on the role of folk dance festivals as a new space of the performance, transmission, transition and transformation of traditional dances. One of the main aims is to identify reasons for the major changes they have observed in folk festivals and folk dance activities over an extended period of time. The majority of the chapters were originally presented at the International Folk Dance Symposium entitled “The Cultural Development of Folk Dance Festivals and the Sustainability of Tradition” held in İzmir, Turkey in October 2017 within the framework of the 12th Balkan Folk Dance Festival and those who attended give their grateful thanks to İzmir Metropolitan Municipality for their generous sponsorship that enabled this project. Following the format of the discussions during this Symposium, the chapters in this book have been grouped under four main themes as listed below; 1. the local, regional and international contributions to folk dance festivals, their development and their sustainability, 2. the roles of interaction and change in folk dance festivals, 3. the urban-rural interaction and the economic, social or touristic benefits of folk dance festivals, and 4. the relationship between tradition and modernity and the sustainability of tradition in folk dance festival performances.