An Elite Stepchild – The Belgrade Jazz Festival in the Light of Anthropological Analysis
Keywords:
jazz festival, the press, construction, anthropologyAbstract
This paper examines the specific processes through which the Belgrade Jazz Festival was established as an international cultural event of primary artistic significance for the capital of the SFRY and the rest of the country during the 1970s. The shift from the popular to the elite is analysed through an ethnography based mainly on contemporary newspaper sources, which enable an examination of the social, economic, political and cultural circumstances crucial to this process. In accordance with the anthropological orientation, the activities of key stakeholders involved in various ways in establishing the festival as an essential part of the city’s cultural offering – ranging from organizers and decision-makers to jazz musicians, journalists and the audience – are
examined from a broader perspective than one strictly limited to the specific musical genre in local frameworks. Furthermore, these activities are analysed in relation to international influences concerning both jazz music and jazz festivals. The significance of the latter lies primarily in the fact that they were largely adopted as strategic directions for the Belgrade Jazz Festival from its inception, but also in the way they reveal adaptation strategies to local specificities characterised by multifaceted problems.
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