Nostalgia and Lost Authenticity: Evolution of the nternational Picnic Country & Folk Festival in Mrągowo into a Tourist Attraction
Nostalgia and Lost Authenticity: Evolution of the nternational Picnic Country & Folk Festival in Mrągowo into a Tourist Attraction

Author(s): Anna Duda
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Sociology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Mrągowo; Picnic Country; country music; tourist attraction; performance
Summary/Abstract: Mrągowo, as one of the most recognisable cities of the Mazurian region, is most often associated with the International Picnic Country & Folk Festival, which has been organised continually since 1982. Over decades, the city has been changing under the influence of the festival. Hotels and restaurants have been constructed according to an American blueprint and a western-style Mrongoville Family Town has been constructed to specifically reflect a 19th-century village of the Wild West. The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Picnic Country Festival has changed over the years—from a country music centre compared to Nashville to a festival losing its musical identity. For this purpose, the contents of Gazeta Olsztyńska, Gazeta Warmii i Mazur and Gazeta Wyborcza Olsztyn were analysed. In addition to the historical perspective, anthropological research was conducted, relying on participant observation during the 40th edition of the Picnic Country festival. The aim was to show how the authenticity and nostalgia of the country-festival-goers clash with the inauthenticity of Mrągowo’s space and random tourists.

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