Festivities as a Strategy for the Valorization of Rerritorial Resources: Experiences in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

In recent decades, due to the advance of standardization, relocation and other transformations in the agri-food system, initiatives have emerged to enhance products considered typical and somehow related to cultural heritage. Identity, tradition and typicality, among other concepts, were among the arguments mobilized in a type of territorial innovation processes: the Agri-food Festivities. In a context where many different festivals take place in Argentina, this paper focuses on six cases from Buenos Aires Province: Fiesta del Vino de la Costa de Berisso, Fiesta del Alcaucil platense, Fiesta del Tomate Platense, Fiesta Salame Quintero de Mercedes, Fiesta del Postre Balcarce and Fiesta del Salame de Tandil. Through bibliographic review and interviews, those experiences are compared using the Localized Agri-Food Systems approach and examining their processes, tensions and the role they play as a value enhancement strategy. Among the results, heterogeneity stands out. Through agri-food festivals, local products are promoted for tourism but visibility and link between spaces and actors of the territory are also given. Recognition, after all, not only reinforces and resignifies links between the products and the places, it also rises contradictions.