58. Zagreb International Folklore Festival

In a year when the European Union is promoting skills that enable more successful progress, we should emphasize traditional skills that, with the knowledge and skills of our ancestors, have enabled us to better understand cultural spaces and the successful coexistence of man and nature in smaller environments. The Network of UNESCO Cultural Spaces is an Erasmus+ program cooperation project in which, along with six other countries, Croatian representatives of the Gacka People's Open University from Otočac and experts from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore successfully participated in the presentation and sharing of good practices for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. With coordination from the Latvian Suiti community and partners from two Estonian communities (Setomaa and from the island of Kihnu), Macedonian partners, as well as those from Georgia, Sardinia and Portugal, experiences of preserving and encouraging traditional skills and crafts, art and creativity were exchanged. In the program of the 58th Zagreb International Folklore Festival, the results of that international project will be presented, with emphasis on the national theme "Šokadijo, I carry you in my heart", with which the basic markers of the identity of Šokci will be presented.During the five days of the festival, folklore societies and individuals will perform, who will represent the diversity of Croatian ethnographic heritage in addition to shocking traditions, representatives of national minorities, Croats from neighboring countries and emigration (about 30 groups in total), along with a dozen ensembles that will present the heritage of other peoples and cultures. . The Smotre ceremony would present the folkloric traditions of the Šokac Croats in Pannonia, a Croatian sub-ethnic group that lives in Slavonia, Baranja, Srijem, Bačka, Banat and Bosnian Posavina. ), Romania (Rekaš) and Serbia (Vojvodina).