The role of festivals in the development of a post-socialist city—Łódź case study

Abstract

In this chapter, the city of Łódź and the festivals held there are presented in detail. It is then a particular case study showing a review of urban festivals and their influence on space. Łódź is a city in central Poland, inhabited by about 700 000 people. It is an example of a post-industrial and post-socialist centre undergoing a deep transformation. In 1945–1989, Poland was ruled by a communist system, imposed by the Soviet Union. Due to the “Solidarity” social movement, in 1989, peaceful reforms were introduced, which resulted in the implementation of market economy and democracy. That was how the process of transformation, i.e., the transition from the communist system to capitalist economy and a democratic state began in Poland. The transformation had a number of both positive and negative effects, which also affected Polish cities. After 1989, the changes in Łódź included a decline of the textile industry, the development of economy based on services, as well as significant spatial transformations. Łódź as an old industrial city based on traditional textile production was particularly strongly affected by the process of deindustrialisation (after 1989) and the resulting socio-economic problems. On the other hand, the free market and the introduction of democracy triggered social activity, also in the field of culture and festival organisation. There appeared many institutions and associations concerned with culture, art and entertainment. City authorities noticed that the activity known in the West as the cultural economy was successfully used for the purpose of restructuring post-industrial cities. Therefore, they began to support the development of culture in Łódź. This strategy, based on cultural and entertainment events, became one of the ways of developing the city. This led to the growth of the festival function in the city. This chapter presents a detailed description of Łódź as a city—its location, natural conditions and history. It is a broad background for the description of the major festival events held in Łódź, presented further in the chapter. This part of the book is based on own author’s research and other sources. The reader can find here description of 48 urban festivals and the evaluation of their influence on the urban space of Łódź.