This paper focuses on the blooming of invented traditions in the city of Surakarta, Indonesia after decentralisation. Decentralisation has brought a daunting task to the local level of government in ...that municipal governments are now obliged to try to boost their financial capacity. One such popular enterprise to meet this need is boosting the tourism sector. People are encouraged to invent new cultural events. More encouragement was shown in 2013 by providing funds for organising cultural events at the neighbourhood level. This initiative has resulted in increasing numbers of events held each year. The events are mostly based on the imagination of the hosting community, relating to their neighbourhood. What develops depends on what the community has in its neighbourhood. Some neighbourhoods with artefacts related to the royal court attach themselves to the royal court by involving royal court members and associates in the activities. Others, who do not have an artefact, create narratives that relate the neighbourhood to something bigger, such as the royal court or national history. These invented traditions, while community-based in nature, have some unintended consequences. The involvement of the royal courts in the procession will highlight those courts so that they might gain more power and authority.
•Decentralization increased community-based tourism development in Surakarta in the form of cultural events.•The cultural events need authentication from cultural authorities which happen to be the royal and minor courts who lost their political role.•The newly invented cultural events use physical heritage, narratives, and cultural attributes to connect to the royal and minor courts, as well as inviting the royal-related people.•The involvement of the royal and minor courts in the new cultural events can be a reproduction of structure where the courts can gain more power.
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