From traditional folk rituals to contemporary demonstrations: organization and meaning transformation of the Seventh of May Festival.

With this study evaluated the Seventh of May Festival celebrations which is celebrated in the Eastern Black Sea section of Black Sea Region of Turkey. The focus has been on transforming traditional celebrations, which have been celebrated for centuries and registered as intangible cultural heritage by relevant institutions, into international festivals. Firstly, explanations were made about festival tourism and the content and traditional celebrations of the Seventh of May Festival. Then; celebrations turned into festivals in Giresun province and Besikduzu district of Trabzon have been evaluated as case studies. In the conclusion and discussion part, evaluations were made considering that the transformation of the celebrations into festivals negatively affected the sustainability of the cultural heritage and its value in the local community. The fact that festivals could not be held in both settlements due to the precautions taken within the scope of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale, did not make field research possible. For this reason, experiences from previous celebrations were taken into consideration in the evaluations and interpreted in the context of the subject with the support of literature. Despite this situation, which can be expressed as the limitation of the study, it is thought that it is important to present a perspective that is positioned against the extensive literature that states that festivals contribute positively to the sustainability of cultural heritage.