In the year when the European Union is promoting skills that drive progress, we should also
promote traditional skills and the knowledge and crafts of our ancestors, which helped
us better understand cultural spaces and successfully co-exist with nature outside of
large urban areas. The Network of UNESCO Cultural Spaces is an Erasmus+ collaboration
program involving Croatian representatives of the Gacka Open University from Otočac
and experts of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, along with representatives
of six other countries. Within the Program, they have successfully presented and shared
best practices in preserving intangible cultural heritage. With the coordination from
the Latvian Suiti community and partners from two Estonian communities (Setomaa
and the Kihnu island communities), Macedonian, Georgian, Sardinian and Portuguese
58. Međunarodna smotra folklora Zagreb International Folklore Festival 17—21/07/2024
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partners, the participants have exchanged experiences in safeguarding and promoting
traditional skills and crafts, arts, and creative works. The program of the 58th International
Folklore Festival includes a presentation of the international project’s results with an
emphasis on the national theme Šokadijo, lipa i bogata. This is a representation of the
key elements of the cultural domain of the Šokci, including bećarac, which is included
in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In the five days of the festival folklore groups and individuals will present the traditions of
the Šokci, as well as the diversity of Croatian ethnographic heritage. Other participants will
include representatives of ethnic minorities, Croats from neighbouring and other countries
(a total of about 30 groups), and around ten ensembles representing the heritage of
other nations and cultures. The formal event of the Festival will feature folklore traditions of
Šokci Croats from Pannonia, a subethnic Croatian group inhabiting the areas of Slavonia,
Baranya, Syrmia, Bačka, Banat and Bosnian Posavina. The groups from Croatia will be
joined by Šokci groups from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary (Pecs), and Serbia (Bačka).
The participants of the Erasmus+ UNESCO Cultural Spaces program will present their
work through various groups of vocal, instrumental and dance performers. Participants
from Latvia include ensembles Gudenieki Suiti, Suitu dūdenieki/Suiti pipers; Suitu sievas/
singers; while Macedonian performers come from Kičevo. Other foreign participants in
the Festival include ensembles from Brazil, Indonesia, Netherlands, and Peru, as well as
ethnic Ukrainians from Canada. They will perform on stages located in Ban Josip Jelačić
Square, Zrinjevac, Sveta Nedelja, Vrbovec, Pleternica and Beltinci. The performances in
Zrinjevac also include (on July 3) that of a large group consisting of several generations
of Croatian immigrants from Perth, Australia, called the Zagreb Croatian Folklore Group.

The stage in Ban Jelačić Square has been proven to be an excellent space to attract
numerous visitors and audiences, and a great spot for dance workshops by Francis
Feybli from Switzerland until such times when the programs will be able to return to the Gradec stage, which is currently out of use due to earthquake damage and the
renovation work on the nearby school. Learning from the experiences of previous years,
that make the outdoor Festival performances in the Jelačić Square increasingly uncertain
due to weather, the hall of the Travno Cultural Center has been booked as a backup.

Other stages used by the Festival include the Music Pavilion in Zrinjevac,
the outdoor stages in Sveta Nedelja (by the Kipišće lake in Strmec),
Vrbovec, Pleternica, and the partner festival in Beltinci, Slovenia.
Just like in the previous years, in the time preceding the festival, there is a series of
concerts, exhibitions, panel discussions, folk theatre performance, book presentations
and educational and creative workshops for different age groups starting in spring
and continuing to July, announcing the main Festival events. The first panel discussion
on the five decades of singing by the Ošjak klapa from Vela Luka, the Island of
Korčula, was organized back in April. The discussion included klapa members,
ethnologist Maja Povrzanović Frykman and ethnomusicologist Vedrana Milin Ćurin.

A concert featuring folk church songs of the Šokci, performed by four groups and under
Zrinka Posavec’s conceptual idea in the Church of St. Peter in Vlaška Street – Rejoice,
o Mary! (June 14) and a concert of Marian songs performed by three groups of white
Šokci with a procession from the Jelačić Square to Kamenita Vrata – Zibala majka
zipkicu (July 14), under Tomislav Habulin’s conceptual idea, are special events in their
content and performers, offering an insight into spirituality of those traditions and the
Croatian religious tradition in general, which is deeply rooted in the lives of the people.
Tradition-inspired concerts of various musical genres are held in the gallery and studio
Klet in Ilica 73 (Mislav Lešić with the exhibition called Dead End Realism and a concert
by Ukleti dukat band, May 17), in the Komedija Theatre’s Kontesa club (jazz concert by
Hojsak & Novosel ft. Thanos Stavridis & Christos Tassios, June 15), and during the main
Festival event: ethno-band Veja (concert Dark hour, July 18) on the Ban Jelačić Square,
as well as tamburitza band Rubato (July 21), and in the Music Pavilion in Zrinjevac
traditional instruments of the Šokci from Hungary, (with Andor Vegh’s Mišina orchestra
from Pecs, July 20), and AnnaDel (world music concert of Ukrainian songs, July 21).

Exhibitions are organised in collaboration with the Dubrava Open University, including an
international-bilateral exhibition Time of Hope in the “Kontrast” gallery, presenting straw
artists by Bunjevci Croats and Ukrainians, accompanied by straw art workshops (by Lucija
Franić Novak). An exhibition A phenomenon in two verses: bećarac with the presentation
of the Bećarac Museum in Pleternica (July 2) is set up in the Zagreb City Library in Starčević
Square. The Special Police Gallery in Trg žrtava fašizma will feature a photography exhibition
called Čaje (by Dražen Bota from Vinkovci Photography Club). The Ethnographic Museum
will also host a photography exhibition called Instead of a Thousand Words… – photography
by Marijan Jović, set up in collaboration with the Županja City Museum. The curator of
the Ethnographic Museum Katarina Bušić (July 12) will hold a round-table discussion on
The Šokci and heritage as a public discussion on the culture, history and literature of the
Šokci (exhibitors: Tena Babić Sesar, Katarina Bušić, Ljubica Gligorević, Marinko Vuković). An
exhibition called “Kad se spremim i malo naredim – traditional costumes of the Pannonian
Šokci” by Josip Forjan and associates will be set up in collaboration with the Cultural Center
Travno’s Traditional Cultural Heritage Center in the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum.

The Croatian Writers’ Association will host a themed lecture by Ivana Kurtović
Budja and Anica Bilić (June 27) entitled Speech as heritage – ikavian-ekavian oldštokavian dialect of Slavonia pointing out the role of the Šokačka rič manifestation.
There will be a presentation of picture books from the Cvelferija region for children
and kindergarten teachers (June 20), made possible through the great efforts of the
Markuševec Kindergarten on the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage
of their Prigorje region. The Bogdan Ogrizović Library will host a presentation of books
Kulturno-umjetničko društvo Seljačka sloga Gradište 1923. – 2023., Naših stotinu godina
(Our hundred years – “Peasant Concord” Folklore Group, Gradište) from Opatovac,
and Kako su stari pripovidali (How they spoke of old) – the speech and vocabulary of
Gradište. A book presentation – Knjiga bećaraca (The Book of Bećarac) – a collection
of decasyllabic couplets from the Bećarac Museum (July 13) will be hosted in the same
library, while ethnologists Marija Gačić and Sony Darrow’s (Czech Republic) presentation
Contemporary clothing of Šokci women will be held at the Ethnographic Museum (July 20).
In the Park Zrinjevac, encouraged by the Festival’s Šokac culture main
theme, there will also be educational and creative workshops for various age
groups – from preschoolers to adults – held by Marija Gačić (July 20).
A folk theatre performance titled Vila lala – a comedy of the “Slavonian Travelling
Theatre” and the Folk Theatre “Mika Živković” from Retkovci, which corresponds to the
Festival’s main theme, i.e. The Šokci, will be held in the Cultural Center Travno (July 10).
Love for horses presented through wedding carriages is another part of Šokci
heritage and one of the symbols of their cultural identity. Folklore promenades
from Friday to Sunday (July 19 – 21), gathering Festival participants like every
year and bringing their performances closer to their audience on the rout from
Zrinjevac through Jelačić Square and Praška back to Zrinjevac, will also feature
a program of Šokci wedding carriages in cooperation with the Sikirevci Horse
Breading Association with years long experience in parading wedding carriages.
Digitalization of the International Folklore Festival materials, in cooperation with the
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research and the digital repository of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage Reference Center, is an important part of the year-round activities
directly connected to local communities actively seeking help and available digitalized
recordings from the previous editions of the Festival. That makes the activities related to
the documented material one of the priorities in the effort to preserve and transfer local
knowledge and crafts to younger generations through workshops or seminars regularly held
by the Festival associates on the regional level for county associations of folklore groups.

The Festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media, the City of
Zagreb, Zagreb Tourist Board and the Croatian Composers’ Association.