World Folklore Festival in Bashkortostan will be largest in its history

UFA, 12 March 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The upcoming World Folklore Festival in Bashkortostan in the summer of 2020 should become the most large-scale in the entire history of its holding, Konstantin Tolkachev, the Chairman of the State Assembly - Kurultay of the Republic of Bashkortostan, stated in the Federation Council.

The issue of preparing for the next year's 6th World Folklore Festival was considered at the extended meeting of the Committee on Science, Education and Culture as part of the Days of Bashkortostan on March 12 and 13 in the Federation Council.

“The Folklore Festival will be held from July 18 to August 1, 2020. It will cover all cities and districts of Bashkortostan. Guests will be able to show themselves and get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the peoples living in the republic,” said Konstantin Tolkachev. “It can be assumed that the World Folklore Festival in our republic will be the largest in history. Representatives from five continents and about 100 creative teams are expected. To date, applications have already been received from 73 countries. At the same time, 53 of them decided on the creative teams that will visit us”.

The decision to host the Folklore Festival in Bashkortostan was made three years ago, due to the participation of the delegation of the republic in the work of the 45th World Congress and General Assembly of the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF) in Peru.

The transfer of the flag of the World Folklore Festival to Bashkortostan took place in the summer of 2016 at the 5th World Folklore Festival in Mexico. According to the Minister of Culture of Bashkortostan, Amina Shafikova, the team from the republic was one of the most popular there.

“The Republic of Bashkortostan is a highly professional and responsible region. In January of this year, together with CIOFF President Philip Bossan, we met with the Acting Head of the Republic Radiy Khabirov and we have no doubt that the festival in Bashkortostan will be held at the highest level, ”said Tamara Purtova, director of the Russian National House of Folk Art.

The CIOFF World Folklore Festival is an event, which goal is to bring together representatives of the intangible cultural heritage of all the national sections of the CIOFF.

The Festival gathers all elements of folk art, such as dances, songs, playing musical instruments, traditional games.

To date, five Folklore Festivals were held. The first of them took place in 1996 in Holland, the second in 2000 in Japan, in 2004 in Hungary.

In 2012, South Korea hosted the fourth World Folklore Festival. The fifth one was held in Mexico in 2016.