Heterogeneity and spontaneity: reindeer races, bureaucratic designs and indigenous transformations at the Festival of the North in Murmansk

ABSTRACT This article seeks to understand the Festival of the North in Murmansk as an event incorporating different logics of design and political projects. It pays particular attention to the reindeer races and their changing historical significance, and puts forward the argument that the spontaneity of the reindeer races provides for the constant renewal of meanings attached to them and thus for the longevity of the festival. Combining a historical overview of available written sources with empirical observations from the 78th Festival of the North in Murmansk, the article examines the reindeer races through the notion of “indigenous sports” as applied in local context. In this way it complements the existing body of scholarly works on indigenous cultural festivals and on the Festival of the North within the context of the reindeer-herding practice.