International Festival of Pop Songs, ‘Bratislavská Lýra’ and the challenges of Eastern European music internationalization

This article deals with the functioning of Eastern European song festivals, which emerged during the boom of European festival culture in the 1960s. It focuses on one of the most important Eastern European shows—the International Festival of Pop Songs ‘Bratislavská Lýra’—which was established in Czechoslovakia in 1966, with particular attention to the issues of internationalization and international exchange of Eastern European pop music mediated by the festivals. Based on an analysis of primary sources, the organization of Lýra is discussed, along with its international publicity, economic background and artistic orientation as well as the cultural political circumstances that determined its basic conception, especially regarding the abandonment of the Czechoslovak pro-Western course and the reassertion of the pro-Soviet policy after the occupation of the country in 1968. The possibilities and distinctiveness of the music scene of the European socialist camp are also considered.