CULTURE

International Folk Festival

The statement that Zielona Góra revels in folklore is by no means exaggerated. It is already for the 19th time that the International Folk Festival was held in Zielona Góra from 3rd to 10th September 2000.

Worth noting is the fact that Gerard Nowak has been a longstanding dire- ctor of the festival and an untiring activist who has directed the concerts for many years. The festival is organised every two years. The first was held in 1964. This year's edition saw the representatives of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, China, Mexico and Se- negal.

The festival was staged thanks to the financial assistance of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the City Office in Zielona Góra, the European Union and the "Sprewa-Nysa-Bóbr" Euroregion.

Concerts were held not only at the Zielona Góra "Amphitheatre" and a purpose made stage in the pedestrian area next to the Town Hall, but also all over the Zielona Góra Province. It is a very good idea to foster the values of folk art in small towns and villages as it represents a kind of high art devoid of any common and vulgar features. What it does have is a richness of glamorous melody as well as inherent expression and truth- fulness.

Each one of the ten groups performing at the festival presented a different type of original folklore. Polish folklore was presented by the Lubuski Folk Performance Group, which has been singing and dancing in Zielona Góra for as many as 45 years. The folk festival in Zielona Góra is regarded as one of the best of its kind in Poland.

Tomasz Barański