Project Idea

Officially.

The Shtetlfest project was supported in 2019 within the framework of the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2014-2020 and implemented in 2020-2022 by the coordination team of beneficiaries consisting of participants from Belarus and Poland.

The thematic direction of the project, according to the goals of the Programme, is the promotion of local culture and preservation of the historical heritage (HERITAGE), where the priority is culture and history. 

The full official title of the project is Research and revitalization of urban folklore as

the main element of festivities in former Jewish townships and the name SHTETLFEST is also used as an acronym.

The total project budget, according to the supported project offer, is 46 027,17 €

Harvest festivals and Kupala feasts for villages, fairs and artisans’ holidays for small towns.

The initial idea of the project, developed in 2018 by the Belarusian creative group, was the revival of a traditional town fair in the form of a local festival adapted to the local realities of a specific settlement, historical date of the venue, regional character and cultural features. 

The creative team is confident that such a local and authentic-like shtetl festival can eventually replace the identical, copy-pasted, “cheburek-patriotic” town holidays and artificially created “district dazhinkas” (harvest festivals) in Belarus, and also contribute to greater interest in Jewish heritage in small towns of Poland, attract the attention of tourists and entrepreneurs, positively influence the development of regional infrastructure. For Belarus, where the small town, as a way of organizing life, almost disappeared along with the historical memory, turning into an agricultural town or village, the shtetl festival, as a concept of understanding and revival of urban traditions, seems very relevant. After all, this is an opportunity to preserve the local holiday as a symbolic value that unites the diverse town community. 

And, of course, in order to return the holiday that no longer exists in tradition or has some other form and essence changed to fit the needs of ideology, you need to delve into the sources and go to the towns. Touch the texture, find the remains of tradition, record the memories of residents, understand how it is possible (and whether necessary) to work with an almost disappeared cultural object in modern conditions. 

What we decided to do.

Thus, the idea of the project was implemented in the creation of an international non-linear (you can design your own trip) route through six main and several additional locations of Belarus and Poland that are former Jewish towns. These are places with different levels of infrastructure, with different flavors, with their own unique cultural background. They have one thing in common: until the middle of the 20th century, they were all large towns.

It is to these towns that a joint Belarusian-Polish expedition was organized in the summer of 2021, the purpose of which was not only the collection of ethnographic materials, but a more artistic and reflective approach to the topic. The goals of the expedition were the verification and analysis of the current state of historical memory, recording of local folklore and fixation of physical (material) objects of memory, analysis of the situation through own perspective and experience of participants. The working group of the expedition included amateur ethnographers and professional researchers of Jewish heritage, post-folk musicians, dance masters, photographers, journalists, and artists. Such composition was conceived in order to obtain a collectively created image of the former town (not) inscribed in today’s reality and to understand how it is possible to work with it. 

Due to the influence of external circumstances and time conditions, not everything turned out as planned. Full-fledged joint expeditionary work was obstructed by the isolation conditions of Сovid-19 and the political crisis in Belarus in 2020. The participants from Belarus and Poland were forced to work in the expedition separately, but they did it simultaneously and synchronized online. Almost every day during the expedition, the working group held cross-border meetings, discussing various topics and issues of research and preservation of the heritage of former towns. Events were also organized within the teams, with the participation of invited experts, as well as with the participation of the local audience and local historians.

As a result, the collected material was processed and structured into a media manual, where you can find audio-visual materials and notes collected by the working group. There are detailed diaries of the expedition with interesting daily findings and observations of the participants. 

Для For those who are ready to travel independently, detailed infrastructure information has been prepared on all the towns and cities where the Shtetlfest expedition managed to get to. 

Analytical material developed by the team with the participation of an expert in research methodology is also presented in the media manual. This article tells about the method of autoenthography and can be a good guide in working with any ethnographic and anthropological material, where there are almost no bearers left, and people’s memories are emotionally hard for both the informants and the collectors.  

What we did not achieve.

Of all the planned activities of the project, the main one was not implemented – the town fair Shtetlfolkfest, which was to be held in the former town of Izabielin at the end of summer 2021 with the help and participation of a local friend and partner of the project, the private enterprise “Padarosk Estate”. The site of the festival was chosen, and the idea was developed taking into account local cultural and historical peculiarities. About 500 visitors were expected. But the coordination team of the project was forced to refuse to hold a mass cross-border event on the territory of Belarus due to increased political repression in the country and danger for participants and organizers.  

The PR campaign of the project did not have much success, as the liquidation and recognition as extremist ones of independent media and many partner publics of the project in social networks during 2021-2022 made it impossible to spread information about the project.

What’s next.

At the moment, the media manual on the international route works as an open information platform and as an archive of audio-visual and textual materials concerning the studies of former Belarusian and Polish towns included in the route Barysaw-Zembin-Smilavichy-Navahrudak-Lyubcha-Izabielin-Orla-Krynki-Tykocin-Bialystok. 

The archive will be supplemented with other materials from other locations of the Shtetlfest expedition, which continues despite the completion of the project supported by the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2014-2020 and the termination of relations with the Belarusian beneficiaries. 


The text is prepared according to the project offer and the final report.


P.S. The Belarusian part of the Shtetlfest team is grateful to the managers of the PBU Program 2014-2020 Sergey Kuznetsov, Marina Kivel and Dmytro Stashkevich for their support in working on the project!