Musical heritage in relation to entrepreneurship and cultural tourism

The Interreg Aurora funded project ICH North enhances the visibility of musical heritage through cultural innovations, tandem meetings for musicians and entrepreneurs as well as creating a community in northern Sweden, Finland, and Norway. The activities focus on branding and promoting local cultural and musical heritage with possible products and innovations for cultural tourism.

It's important to recognize the importance and potential of the creative industry in our regions. This sector is important for creating job opportunities in sparsely inhabited and remote regions and even if the actors themselves might be small, the combined economic value of the creative industry is large. Cultural tourism is also a large business segment. 44 % of Europeans name cultural offerings of their travel destination as the most important factor when choosing their destination to visit (European Union 2021). If you are a tourist, it is most often the local culture you are interested in.

Intangible cultural heritage is knowledge and skills that can be transferred within a community and developed over time. In this article, we focus particularly on musical heritage. Intangible musical heritage can relate, for example, to ways of teaching music, the role of music in everyday life and in the community, ways and places of performance and experience, skills in instrument making and traditions of playing. (UNESCO 2022.)

You can argue that folk music has lost the function it once had, and thus lost its purpose. New functions, purposes, and ways of passing on a living cultural heritage are needed. 

Ways to dig up local cultural potential - Think tanks leading to cultural innovations

The ICH North project has organized workshops for entrepreneurs and inhabitants in different areas in the Aurora region. Different concepts in different surroundings offer a fruitful discussion and provide with a variety of points of view. At the same time it gives an opportunity to make entrepreneurs think about and realize the potential in their local cultural heritage they might not have taken into consideration before. There has been a workshop for the tourism sector in Perho, Finland, village meeting at local restaurant in Replot, Finland and tourism and folk music workshop in Luleå, Sweden.

In the Luleå workshop the participants were brainstorming about the places and situations where tourists could experience folk dance and music. They discussed the potential cooperation connecting musical heritage into new tourism products or services.

The participants had a bunch of ideas. There was an idea for different transportation services making musical heritage visible in their premises and vehicles and offering QR codes for more information. There could also be try-out activities and performances on actual locations.

Folk music could also be played in local sport events and in the gym. QR codes in different packages could lead to more information about the local musical heritage. Films about music and dance could be projected even to the facades of buildings. There were also ideas on using virtual reality for experiencing the cultural heritage of the places visited. There were also wishes on making musical heritage more visible on guided walks or program services for tourists. Workshops and courses can be provided also by culture associations. More cooperation was suggested with shops, nature centers and tourism companies.

The Perho workshop was targeted for tourism sector in the Central Ostrobothnia region. The theme of the workshop was the use of cultural heritage from the perspective of both the tourist and the tourism entrepreneur. Also, this workshop was about the places of experiencing cultural heritage and the cooperating partners for developing new products and services.

There were wishes the local tourism enterprises could use more local music in their marketing, but also the challenge of finding suitable players, copyright issues and resources were discussed.

The cultural heritage could be combined with other experiences and included in “live like a local” attractions. More regular conversation providing information on coming events, existing services and apparent needs between different sectors would help developing the services and the whole region benefitting from the existing ones. The grassroot music community and associations can help the service providing companies in making their supply more local.

The results of this workshop are described and discussed in more detail in this article (in Finnish): https://centriabulletin.fi/aineettoman-kulttuuriperinnon-hyodyntaminen-matkailussa/#more-8355 

The Replot workshop was organized with a local bakery and microbrewery. The participants consisted of a mixed group of local musicians, local entrepreneurs, and villagers, as well some folk music students from Sweden. There was a discussion on the possibilities for local music heritage, the tourism sector, and entrepreneurs. One of the suggestions was open jam sessions in local pubs and venues, where also others than those playing would get in touch with the music.

Travelling by boat has historically been easier than travelling on land in coastal regions, and the sea has been more of a connector than a divider. The music heritage, including ways of playing and tunes, has travelled with people. After the Replot workshop discussions, there was a concert that was streamed.

Promoting local musical heritage in a practical and easy access way

Cultural heritage can find its way into the present and the future via new paths, and interaction between practitioners and other actors could lead to new creative collaborations that benefit both parties. Musical heritage can get new meanings and purposes by new connections in the community and even in the society. 

In August 2023, ICH North arranged a meeting between an artisan ice cream factory and a living heritage practitioner that resulted in an interesting collaboration. The final product was a village ice cream with a flavor inspired of the local “frasagröjtin”(A sort of sweet berry porridge). A QR-code leading to a playlist with local music heritage tunes on the side of the ice cream package makes it possible to explore the music of the Lappfjärd village while enjoying the ice cream. The music is curated to include both traditional ways of playing the tunes and modern versions. The pattern on the lid of the package is designed using elements from the Lappfjärd traditional dress. As a result, the local cultural heritage gets more visibility and the entrepreneur branding. The ice cream was sold by a local association during summer 2024, adding yet another dimension of sustainability. 

Lappfjärd ice cream, photo: Närpes Glassfabrik AB

It’s important that the core values of the entrepreneur and the cultural heritage community match in collaborations such as this. It can be a very personal experience to be part of a cultural community and it is important the practitioner feels comfortable and not “used” when the cultural aspect is utilized in a commercial context. 

A way to promote and showcase local musical heritage without binding it to a certain commercial product or business is for example the “Folk like a local”-poster. The poster has been developed and tested in the ICH North project. It is an easily printable, nice looking A3 poster with a QR-code to a YouTube-playlist that contains heritage music from a village or a region. The posters can be put up at appropriate places such as museums, restaurants, common gathering places, notice boards, libraries, harbors and wherever people tend to hang around. The aim of the posters is to make local musical heritage visible in new places, for tourists, local inhabitants and anyone interested to discover. The QR-code makes it possible to follow how many have scanned the code. You can also see how many have listened to the playlists. The “Folk like a local” poster is currently piloted in Replot, Vallgrund & Björkö, Lappfjärd, Närpes, Kälviä, Ångermanland-Medelpad and North Ostrobothnia. The poster can be made both for a smaller village or municipality – or a larger region. Have a look at the materials in the Project materials section.

Folk like a local Kälviä stand, photo: Kati Hyvönen

Potential of the musical heritage as a cornerstone for developing entrepreneurship and cultural tourism - name it, use it and show it!

In the different workshops and think tanks the results showed that many things locally considered “normal” and “simple” have potential to be utilized in tourism services. Many of the suggestions are not expensive or hard to implement, but need mostly open-mindedness, creativity, and new perspectives. Also, positive attitude and a will to showcase and spread musical heritage is essential.

Where you are from is a very important part of branding and marketing. It is no coincidence that many entrepreneurs include geographical names in their business name, and it’s part of the image. In marketing it is not so much the product itself, as the story behind it that is important. From an entrepreneur´s point of view, it’s important to be able to evaluate and measure the outcome. It might also be a good thing for culture heritage actors to look at concrete results and numbers. How many ice creams were sold? How many times has the playlist been listened to?

Naturally, also musicians and music groups can benefit from musical heritage being attached to the business and branding. More visibility means more online streams and possibilities for new collaborations. More online streams also means more income. 

Intangible cultural heritage is supported on state level in all the Nordic countries by commitments to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and intangible cultural heritage is mentioned also in more and more regional programs and strategies. The concept is yet to be spread and promoted, but it seems to be valued by inhabitants and tourists alike.

Intangible cultural heritage is everywhere, and it might already have a lot of commercial importance, even if it goes unrecognized and is not considered as unity with a common title. It is essential to name it, use it and show it!

Are you an entrepreneur or active musician/active in cultural heritage with a focus on music in the Interreg Aurora area and interested in collaboration? Contact Mats Granfors at Novia University of Applied Sciences! Mats Granfors mats.granfors@novia.fi, +358 50 472 5929

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The ICH North project promotes cross-border music heritage activities in Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Sapmi. The project is funded by the EU Interreg Aurora program and the Finnish national contribution by the Lapland Regional Council (Lapinliito). The project includes the development of an online course, a digital map and learning materials. It will also promote the combination of intangible cultural heritage and entrepreneurship, as well as community participation in the preservation of musical heritage in archives.

More information: https://net.centria.fi/hanke/ich-north/

References:

European Union 2021. Flash Eurobarometer 499 – Attitudes of Europeans towards tourism – October 2021 Summary. Available: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/api/deliverable/download/file?deliverableId=78710 Accessed 11.11.2024.

UNESCO 2022. Basic Texts of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2022 Edition. Available: https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/2003_Convention_Basic_Texts-_2022_version-EN_.pdf. Accessed 11.11.2024.

The header picture depicts the Replot workshop, photo by Sara Kåll-Fröjdö.

Texten har granskats och godkänts av Novias redaktionsråd 27.11.2024.