This year's edition of the International Festival of Children's Folk Ensembles took place from July 21 to 28.
We encourage you to read the report on this event:
http://www.swietodziecigor.pl/index.php/pDocId/1025/pMenuId/2/pCmd/1
“The festival is a gathering place for children from different cultural and religious backgrounds, where—while playing together—they discover the richness and diversity of traditions from various countries and regions, and learn tolerance and respect for the faith, culture, customs, and behaviors of their peers. Participants in the MOUNTAIN CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL include Polish and international folk ensembles representing various ethnic groups from the Podkarpacie region and mountain regions across all continents. In total, approximately 500 children aged 7 to 14 take part in the event.
Over the seven days of the festival, the children live together, perform concerts, go on excursions, build bonfires, and spend a day in the homes of their Polish partners. For the final concert, they prepare a joint program in which elements of the cultures and customs of individual nations come together to create something new. This approach to the festival allows children to find their own language of communication, thanks to which fears of “otherness” disappear, and the natural human distrust of everything foreign and incomprehensible transforms into acceptance of “otherness” and, consequently, into friendships that develop through future interactions.
The festival has been held since 1992. Its mission draws on the programmatic principles of ŚWIĘTO GÓR—a pre-war event initiated by the Mountain Regions Association, whose primary goal was to protect cultural heritage by nurturing, cultivating, and presenting the folk traditions of culture and art among the inhabitants of the Podkarpacie region. Today, thanks to its unique program objectives—which set the Nowy Sącz festival apart from other children’s events of a similar nature—it has become an event whose significance extends far beyond the mere preservation and presentation of folk culture.
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