The construction of belonging and Otherness in heritage events

Grounded in ethnographic analysis, this chapter will analyse these processes by taking a comparative view of two festivals held in countries on different sides of Europe. One case study is drawn from Romania, of a multicultural festival dedicated to the national minorities. It is centred on the Proetnica festival which takes place annually in Sighisoara (Transylvania). Created to allow nationally-recognised ethnic groups an opportunity to express their heritage, the festival offers the perfect arena for analysing community-building strategies. The case of selected examples from the Up Helly Aa festivals held on the islands of Shetland, in the north of Scotland will bring the comparative note. These fire festivals are chiefly represented to visitors as celebrations of the archipelago’s Viking heritage. However, they also afford opportunities for othering processes. Exclusion of ‘non-Shetlanders’ and post-pubescent women, cross-gender dressing and other representational enactment will be considered. Apart from reflecting on the performance of difference, the chapter will also reflect on the manner in which various levels of identities - local, national and European – are expressed within these events.