Wednesday, 6 July 2011
The President Veljanoski opened the 50th Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance
Distinguished Minister of Culture,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished participants,
Representatives of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to mark the opening of the Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance tonight together with you. This pleasure is even greater since this year’s the Festival celebrates an anniversary – this is the 50th Festival. At the very beginning I would like to express appreciation to the organizers - the national institution Centre of Culture “Gligor Prlichev”, as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, which supported this Festival financially. Today, the Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance is member of the International Organizations of Festivals CIOF and IOF and promotes the Macedonian folk song and dance, as part of our national identity.
Dear friends,
This is a year of several anniversary events - 50 years of the Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance, 45 years of Struga Poetry Evenings, as well as 20 years since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia – realization of the efforts and the century’s old dream of the Macedonian people for a sovereign, independent and democratic state of the Macedonian nation and of all the ethnic communities living in the Republic of Macedonia. The Macedonian folklore and the Macedonian national songs very often reflect this longing and dream for independent state.
All these anniversary events that I have mentioned hold many significant dimensions. First of all, they celebrate the great cultural and spiritual treasure of the Macedonian nation, as well as the fact that we have always known how to preserve our heritage, how to pass it on to the next generations, to build and to develop our national identity. At the same time we have always demonstrated our openness, our respect for other nations’ culture, in the widest sense, and to share these values with others, whether it is folklore, song, poetry, art… All this, today, rightfully confirms our position as part of the European culture, as part of the overall civilization and cultural heritage.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am convinced that this 50th Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance will be held in the spirit of pleasure and beauty that folk songs and dance bring, regardless of their origin. I believe that all the participants will feel at home here in Ohrid, a town that with its cultural and spiritual heritage, as well as with the current cultural events, has surpassed the borders of the Republic of Macedonia and the region long time ago, and that we, as hosts, will show our traditional hospitality. I believe that all the participants will return to their home with a lasting memory of the beauties of the Ohrid shore and the Macedonian cultural and spiritual heritage.
Allow me, at the end, to declare the 50th Balkan Festival of Folk Songs and Dance opened.
Thank you.