Mrągowo, as one of the most recognisable cities of the Mazurian region, is most often associated with the International Picnic Country & Folk Festival, which has been organised continually since 1982. Over decades, the city has been changing under the influence of the festival. Hotels and restaurants have been constructed according to an American blueprint and a western-style Mrongoville Family Town has been constructed to specifically reflect a 19th-century village of the Wild West. The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Picnic Country Festival has changed over the years—from a country music centre compared to Nashville to a festival losing its musical identity. For this purpose, the contents of Gazeta Olsztyńska, Gazeta Warmii i Mazur and Gazeta Wyborcza Olsztyn were analysed. In addition to the historical perspective, anthropological research was conducted, relying on participant observation during the 40th edition of the Picnic Country festival. The aim was to show how the authenticity and nostalgia of the country- festival-goers clash with the inauthenticity of Mrągowo's space and random tourists.

Keywords: Mrągowo, Picnic Country, country music, tourist attraction, performance Introduction

If nostalgia is, among other things, a longing for what was not ideal but seems to be so, then the town of Mrągowo is undoubtedly permeated with it. The International Country & Folk Festival, which has continually been organised since 1982, is not only about music—it is a lifestyle which was created in the times when America was a dream and an expression of freedom so much desired by the inhabitants of the People's Republic of Poland. The festival has been changing along with the changing Polish reality. Even if today, in terms of music, it no longer enjoys such great interest, in the public imagination it functions as an event with a clear and well-established message of freedom.