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• Questionnaire analysis of the situation of the artisans of the Debrecen Folk Crafts Festival in 2021

  67-78

  Zsuzsa Kardosné Riz

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  Debrecen Folk Craft Festival faithfully preserves the cultural, social and economic traditions of Debrecen. As a tourist event, the festival provides an opportunity to learn about the centuries-old folk crafts, the artisans, their tools and their products. The traditional fair character of the event is given by the street stalls and the possibility to buy the products. The fair is part of Debrecen's history (it has had the right to hold fairs since the early 1400s), which has given a strong impetus to its economic development. The town's geographical and social characteristics made it a market centre. On the one hand, it was built at the junction of land routes and, on the other, it was owned by lords of national rank who helped to create a farming town and a local society of artisan-traders. In Debrecen, handicraft and trade fair past is still preserved in street names such as Külsővásártér, Mester street, Faraktár street, Csapó street, which is also the venue of the 11th Folk Craft Festival. The aim of the research is to investigate the extent to which Debrecen Folk Craft Festival is a Debrecen event, as well as the composition of the local artisans still operating (craft, age, gender, experience), their business strengths and weaknesses, and their presence on the internet. This representative quantitative survey was carried out with 23 representatives of 15 crafts (leatherworkers, potters, beadworkers, embroiderers, straw weavers, enamelers, furniture makers, woodcarvers, textile toy makers, honeycake makers, etc.) using a self-completion questionnaire. The survey is representative as all participants completed the questionnaire. Since folk crafts are part of the Debrecen identity, and the local culture, their survival is in the interest of the city. The survey covered the forms of their businesses, their sales opportunities, their financial background, etc. The structure of the paper: Introduction presents the festival itself, Material and Methodology, Results and Conclusions chapters describe the questionnaire survey’s results. Conclusions of the research: the cultural and social impact of the Folk Craft Festival is significant, especially through the promotion of folk art heritage, community organisation and its impact on consumer habits. There is still a wide variety of folk crafts in Debrecen, but the masters of some folk crafts are ageing. Traditionally, these one-man businesses still prefer to sell at fairs, because they are weak in marketing and advertising, and nearly a third of them have online presence on the association's website only. Their strength is their expertise, with 40, 50 or even 60 years of experience. The majority of products are qualified by the Hungarian Heritage House, which protects the masters from having their products copied and mass-produced by others.