54TH INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FESTIVAL IN ZAGREB
15 – 19 July, 2020
The theme of the Festival this year is A Century of Peasant Harmony – Concord. We decided to postpone the initially planned program under the title Traditional Heritage between Central Europe and the Mediterranean – tracing the Austrian-Hungarian Empire for next year, due to the necessary adjustments for the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellations by groups from abroad. The theme based on the hundred years of Peasant Concord activity aims to present the sources and the continuity of all current folklore shows and festivals, particularly the Zagreb International Folklore Festival. The Festival was built on the foundations of peasant culture festivals that were organized in the Croatian capital between the two world wars. This time, the international character of the festival will not be reflected as much in the number of international participants, but rather in the diversity of programs and the display of cultures from different parts of the world offered by Croatian performers or those who consider Croatia to be their other homeland. This year’s Festival will, therefore, feature more vocal and instrumental shows with fewer performers on stage, while dancing will be present only when allowed by the circumstances of the epidemic, while respecting all safety measures. It is a known fact that the first Peasant Concord was established in the village of Buševec in Turopolje in 1920. After that, the central Peasant Concord was organized in Zagreb, under the Radić brothers’ Croatian Peasant Party, and branches opened around Croatia. Starting in mid 1920s, county and regional festivals were organized, culminating with the Peasant Culture Festival in Zagreb. A new wave of such festivals started in 1935, and these, like the ones before, depended on political and social conditions, as well as the conditions brought about by the war. In late 1940s and early 1950s, when folklore groups started springing up in the cities of the socialist Yugoslavia, some branches of the Peasant Concord added the tag “cultural and artistic society” to their name. The first International Folklore Festival in Zagreb was organized in 1966, initiated and founded by Petar Mihanović under the Arto organization. This year, we celebrate Petar Mihanović’s 100th birthday. Therefore the program, focused on the Peasant Concord, will also contain a public forum dedicated to him. Under the conditions imposed by the threat of the virus, the Festival is announced with the viewings of ethnographic films in the Tuškanac open-air cinema (on June 9 and 10). In cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum of Istria in Pazin and the Ethnographic Film Festival, the viewings will feature two foreign films (from Nepal and Romania), as well as the very valuable historic films made by the “Andrija Štampar” Public Health School, preserved in the Croatian National Archive. The films are unusually relevant to the current situation, since they show that the excellent response of modern-day epidemiologic services resulted from the excellent public health organization based on the ideas and actions of academician Andrija Štampar.
Within the entire movement of educating and teaching Croatian peasants to read and write, carried out through the organization of the Peasant Concord, which was not only a cultural association, but also an educational and charity one, in the field of health education, Andrija Štampar formed clear foundations and views of social medicine, not only within Croatia, but also with significant impact on the foundation of the World Health Organization. This will be the subject of a public forum (July 9), which is one of the two forums within the Festival (the other being on 100 years of the Peasant Concord on July 14), held in the Bogdan Ogrizović Library. This year’s program will once again be presented on the Gradec Festival stage. The opening ceremony on July 16 will feature performances of soloists and smaller traditional vocal and instrumental groups, accompanied by individual or pair dancers. Traditional players, who are often soloists or smaller groups, have always been the participants and initiators of entertainment. They are therefore often called veselniki (cheer makers) in the Zagorje region. The ceremony will feature a presentation of a wide array of solo traditional instruments, performances by small ensembles accompanied with singers, and an occasional dance. The opening ceremony is also a sort of preamble for the following night, which is dedicated to the Peasant Concord branches, or folklore groups which have kept the word Concord in their name and inherited the tradition. In the initial schedule, the same theme was supposed to dominate another evening with twice as many groups, even those that no longer have the word Concord in their name, but nevertheless remained cultural, educational, and charity centers of their villages or were established on the foundation of the same tradition after World War II. Due to new coronavirus hot spots and the danger of disease spread, we were forced to adjust the Festival’s schedule and reduce the program. We are therefore additionally grateful to all participants who agreed to a single-day stay in Zagreb, without the usual night spent in the Stjepan Radić Student Residence Hall.To protect the safety of performers and audiences, this year we will also not be holding the usual dance workshops for the public. The programs announcing the Festival, held in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery Atrium, will feature a Portuguese fado concert by Jelena Radan, accompanied by Pedro Abreu, a Portuguese living in Croatia, as well as an African-Carribean dance music concert by Cubismo, a Zagreb-based group featuring members from Croatia, Venezuela, and Cuba, all living in Croatia. Irish music and dance rhythms will be presented by the Emerald Steps dance troupe, also from Zagreb, accompanied by the Drowsy Lizards, while the rhythm of Brazil will be performed by Bossa banda. In cooperation with the Indonesian Embassy, we will also enjoy the performance of a gamelan ensemble Jaman Suara led by Julija Novosel and featuring Croatian performers. Zrinka Posavec, accompanied by instrumentalists, will perform traditional music with her authorial sign. The Lado Ensemble will also perform a vocal and instrumental program in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery Atrium before the Festival. We will also be screening the film they made for their 70th anniversary in the Gorgona hall of the Contemporary Art Museum.
The Lado Elektro performance, on the other hand, will close the Festival. Since the beginning of July, Slavica Moslavac’s exhibition Guardians of Heritage – museums, folklore groups, and individuals from the Moslavina Museum Kutina has been documenting and complementing the picture about 100 years of the Peasant Concord in the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla, since the organization has been, along with professional institutions such as museums, one of the main “guardians”, transferring the heritage to younger generations. The play Master of His Own Body, that will be performed by members of the Buševec Peasant Concord Branch theatre group in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery Atrium on Wednesday, July 8, will also be a celebration of 100 years of the Peasant Concord’s existence and activities. On Sunday, July 19, the female vocal group of Posavski Bregi Peasant Concord Branch, male singers of the Greda Sunjska Peasant Concord folklore group, and the female singing group of the Nova zora folklore group from Donja Lomnica will give a concert featuring Marian pilgrimage songs, thus celebrating Our Lady of Kamenita Vrata in the place consecrated by the advocates and worshipers of the city’s protector. During the Festival, there will be a traditional arts and crafts fair held in the Ban Jelačić Square, just like every year. The Festival programs this year will be held in the Tuškanac open air cinema, the main Festival stage in Gradec, in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery Atrium, in Jelačić square, in Sv. Nedelja (near the Kipišće lake), in the Gorgona Hall of the Contemporary Art Museum, and in the Bogdan Ogrizović Library. Festival performances will be broadcast by HRT, and will also be available through live streaming.
Dr. sc. Tvrtko Zebec, Artistic Director
SUDIONICI 54. MSF
Sudionici iz Hrvatske
Baranjsko Petrovo Selo, KUD „Seljačka sloga“
Buševec, Ogranak seljačke sloge Buševec
Delnice, Delnički muzikanti
Donja Lomnica, KUD „Nova zora“
Donji Andrijevci, KUD „Tomislav“
Drenovci, KUD „Ogranak Seljačke sloge“
Greda Sunjska, KUD „Seljačka sloga“
Jelenje, KUD „Zvir“
Kršan, KUD “Ivan Fonović Zlatela”
Kuterevo, KUD „Dangubice“
Lastovo, otok Lastovo „Lastovski poklad“
Osojnik, KUD „Sveti Juraj Osojnik“
Posavski Bregi, KUD „Ogranak Seljačke sloge“
Rečica, KUD „Rečica“
Salinovec, KUD „Salinovec“
Sikirevci, KUD „Sloga“
Slavonija, Srijem i Baranja, Orkestar „Mišina“
Šemovci, Tomislav Zvonar
Zagreb, Ante i Mijat Galić
Zagreb, Veleposlanstvo Republike Indonezije, Ansambl gamelana Jaman Suara
Crvkveni pučki pjevači
Donja Lomnica, Ženska pjevačka skupina KUD-a „Nova zora“
Greda Sunjska, Muška pjevačka skupina KUD-a “Seljačka sloga”
Posavski Bregi, Ženska pjevačka skupina KUD-a „Ogranak Seljačke sloge“ Posavski Bregi
Pučko kazalište
Buševec, Ogranak seljačke sloge Buševec
Izvođači koncerata
Ansambl narodnih plesova i pjesama Hrvatske Lado
Bossa Banda
Cubismo
Emerald Steps & Drowsy Lizards
Jelena Radan i Pedro Abreu
Zrinka Posavec i band
Sudionici iz inozemsva
Zbog epidemiološke situacije u Republici Hrvatskoj te okolnim zemljama, na 54. Međunarodnoj smotri folklora Zagreb nije bilo inozemnih sudionika.