Festivals are an important means of communication to build, empower, and reflect a cultural identity. Therefore, as a means of communication, it is fitting that a festival event is planned through a communication strategy planning process in order to run effectively (Adrienne L. Kaeppler in Falassi. 1987: 23).
Communication is a means to socialize cultural values to its community. Communication can be a means of transmitting culture from one generation to the next. Communication creates, or makes all doubts more certain, and how the ‘culture’ of a group in society exists and continues to exist because they have a long history and tradition that is passed down from one generation to another.
However, the actualization of local culture in community life in reality has not gone well. Cultural values that are based on local wisdom and ethnic culture with the entry of detrimental cultural elements that are absorbed without cultural filters, cause people to tend to no longer use these cultural values in life, so that there is no choice but to plunge into the arena of national association and cross-national cultural interactions. Therefore, in this condition, culture must open up an understanding of the richness and diversity of cultural heritage that we have as one of the competitive powers and advantages that can be proud of and have very high productive power.
By realizing the phenomenon and impact of globalization on the existence of local culture in the context of regional superior strengths in competing to enter global competitions, a cultural preservation and development program is needed to strengthen the resilience of the nation’s culture. In the context of this understanding, the main activities that need to be carried out include efforts to create a cultural image through systematic strategic planning and management, packaging of attractive and targeted cultural products, to be disseminated to all levels of society, both nationally and internationally in an effort to preserve culture and foster community pride in their own culture.
Cultural preservation is an effort to maintain the values of art and culture, traditional values by developing dynamic, flexible and productive evolution, and adapting to situations and conditions that are always changing and developing. One of the objectives of holding cultural preservation is also to revitalize culture (strengthening).
In relation to this, cultural festivals as a means of communication are one of the important means that can be used as a medium for cultural preservation. As a cultural event, festivals have a variety of colors and dramatic intensity from various aspects of dynamics, such as the aesthetics they contain, various signs and meanings attached, historical “roots” and the involvement of native speakers. Coincidentally, this has also been inherent in the nostalgic appeal of the past which is packaged in the form of cultural tourism packages and has now attracted various visitors from various parts of the world.
Developing areas often use festivals for this purpose. The characteristics of each festival are unique, and therefore there is no standard model that can be used to manage all types of festivals. Festivals have different purposes, some are for entertainment and education, some are aimed at uniting various communities in society, and some are aimed at promoting businesses. Festivals can also be small-scale, such as local folk festivals, to international scale. Whatever the reason behind a cultural festival, there must be supporters, participants, and visitors who have different expectations for each festival, and this also affects the unique management process for each cultural festival. The management model for each festival must take into account the uniqueness of each art or tradition that is raised.
