Съборът в Копривщица – жив музей на българската фолклорна култура
The Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa – Living Museum of the Bulgarian Folklore Culture

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the processes of formation and development of the movement of the festivals of folklore. The author outlines the socio-cultural context in the period immediately after the middle of the 20-th century, the driving forces and the basic tendencies which formed the movement as a form of specific care for the traditional culture developed in order to counterbalance the quick advancement of amateur art in Bulgaria. The analysis is based on a synthesis of the reactions of the specialists in folklore studies (mainly ethnomusicologists) who were directly engaged in the processes under consideration. Special attention is paid to the difference between festival of folklore (sabor na narodnoto tvorchestvo) and folklore gala (folkloren festival), which is still not well understood in its practical aspects and remains ill-studied in scholarly research, but nevertheless brings forth different expectations for the folklore to be represented in each of these respective forums. The two streams – both the festivals of folklore and the folklore galas pretended to contribute to the identification and to the popularization of folklore, but were actually rivals in this respect. The author outlines as well how the phenomenon of the festival of folklore has its most representative example in the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa – the living museum of the Bulgarian folklore culture, which celebrates now its 50th anniversary.

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