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Paper short abstract:

One of the significant turning points in the Latvian Folklore Movement was first International Folklore Festival ‘’Baltica’’ that took place in Latvia in 1988. This paper focuses on its role in the Latvian folklore revival of 20th century looking into festival's publications, press, and interviews.

Paper long abstract:

During the second half of the 20th century in Soviet Latvia emerged Latvian Folklore Movement, balancing between legality and illegality, staged representation and search for authenticity. In 1987 Lithuania held the first International Folklore Festival ‘’Baltica’’ that the next year happened in Latvia, changing the local folklore revival environment.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how the setting of a non-democratic environment influenced the program and repertoire of the first ‘’Baltica’’ festival in Latvia (taking into account the institutional aspects of the organization regulated by the totalitarian government) with further step analyzing the impact that the festival left on the Latvian Folklore Movement. That includes researching three groups of information:

• Official data and festival publications

• Printed press articles

• Oral life story interviews

As the discussion about authenticity is still ongoing amongst Latvian folklore practitioners today, this article links the historical influence of ‘’Baltica’’ festival with current issues and questions in the field of folklore praxis in Latvia.