What a maritime history! The uses of maritime history in summer festivals in southern Norway

Abstract

This paper focuses on the growth of cultural heritage tourism in southern Norway, with a particular focus on maritime history presented at summer festivals during recent years. I will be using newly collected empirical data gathered from two festivals: Kjæmpestaden (Giant Town) in Arendal and Kapernatten (Privateer Night) in Farsund. In 2006 and 2007, both festivals included grand outdoor plays based on the history of the Napoleonic Wars (1807–1814). Since Tordenskiolddagene (Tordenskiold Days) in Frederikshavn, Denmark, was the main inspiration for Giant Town in Arendal, I will in addition draw my conclusions on data collected from this maritime summer festival. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the growth in maritime heritage tourism during recent years may be interpreted as the local communities' response to (relative) economic deprivation, population decrease and industrial