Capitale sociale e senso di appartenenza: l’impatto sociale del Festival “La Notte della Taranta” sulla comunità che lo ospita*

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intangible effects of one of the most important folk music festival in Europe, “La Notte della Taranta” Festival (in the South of Italy), in terms of both production of mutual trust among residents participating in the event and strengthening of their sense of belonging to the place. Unlike other previous studies we carried on within the same research project, this analysis only considers the sample made up of people living in the “Grecìa Salentina” area. The starting point of our research is that an event focused on local culture helps strengthening ties within the community as well as one’s sense of belonging to the place of origin. This is because an event which is regularly repeated over time and which strongly draws on collective memory, as is the case with the festival in question, celebrates the membership to a close and spatially, or rather, territorially defined group. Our analysis suggests a positive association among people’s placing a value on the event, civic engagement, and sense of belonging to the place. The Festival and what it represents, being perceived by residents as a “symbol” of their cultural heritage, is then likely to produce a potential “long term” social capital, as shown by their willingness to voluntarily contribute to the organization of the event and to further projects for valuing the place. This paper demonstrates that the Festival is connected o a feeling of belonging to the area here it takes place, whose popular culture it disseminates, the “Grecìa Salentina” area