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
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.