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Heritage and History Considerations when incorporating history into a festival Purpose of festival and audience It is essential to begin by defining the mission or purpose of the festival.  Why are you having the festival and who is your audience?  Is your festival purely historical or are you incorporating some historical elements into an existing festival?  What do you want the festival participants to understand about your community's or your region's history? Reasons to highlight local history There is a tendency to want to associate festivals with the "big names" of history, even if the connection between a famous person and a local community is somewhat tenuous (i.e. "Lincoln slept close to here.")  This approach is not usually the most effective one.  If your purpose is to attract tourists, they are likely to be disappointed when they discover that the famous person that you have publicized is not really from you area.  If your purpose is to promote local pride, showcasing famous people from somewhere else does not work. Cultural heritage tourists are interested in real stories about real people.  They are looking for the less well-known characters and events of history, the things that really happened in your community.  Local people, too, are intrigued to find out more about their own community. But perhaps the most compelling reason to highlight local history is the opportunity it provides to build community involvement.  Most festival organizers complain that they have difficulty getting support, both financial and volunteer, from their communities.  Incorporating local history gives you the chance to involve everyone from school children through senior citizens in identifying, researching, and interpreting local stories.  You can take different approaches to this portion of your festival depending on how much effort you want to devote to building community involvement and ownership. The quickest route is to hire some professional or live re-enactors, or living history presenters to do a performance about some topic that has a strong connection to your community.  A more involved way to approach this - but one that truly builds community - is to involve local people in the process.  Here are some ideas about how to do this:   You might work with a teacher to have students gather oral histories from their grandparents.  You might work with the local historical society to write and produce a play.  You could hold public meetings and ask community members to suggest important events or characters from the community's past.  Work with other potential partners such as your local library, your extension agency, your tourism commission, local churches, senior centers, and historic sites.   Grants are available to help support some types of community involvement projects.  Check the resource list. RETURN TO TOP RETURN TO MAIN HERITAGE / HISTORY PAGE