The IV World Championship of Folklore “World folk 2014”was opened yesterday in the resort Saint Vlas with performances of exotic countries. The performers from Iran and Indonesia and from Republic of Croatia and Russia deserved the applauses of the hundreds of spectators at the stages of “Arena” Amphitheatre. Official guests of the opening were Mrs. Tsatsral Baatar, director of the organization „ArtLar House“ and Mr. Ijilmurun Batbayar from Mongolia, and also Mr. Valko Lyubenov, Doctor Honoris Causa of Folklore and folk arts at Ansted University in Great Brittan, who is a representative of the International Organization of Folklore Arts (IOV- UNESCO) for Bulgaria.

Mrs. Tsatsral Baatar and Mr. Lyubenov welcomed the participants and the guests in the championship and underlined the role of the World folklore and mostly of those people, who develop and keep it. From the name of the Organizers of the Championship, the president of the World Association of Folklore Festivals – WAFF – Mr. Kaloyan Nikolov officially announced that the forum is opened. Congratulating letter from Mr. George Fradsen – general secretary of IOV – UNESKO was read. From the name of IOV - UNESKO Mr. Nikolov received a special Diploma for collaboration between the two organizations. The concert program started on 22 August and showed an exclusive performances of 30 Bulgarian and foreign folklore groups and individual performers. The public highly applauded the performance of the Ensemble for Authentic folklore “Kalushari” from  Harlets – a village in the region of Vratsa, Bulgaria.

The public also admired the bellbearers’ games of the group from Otets Paisievo village, from the Municipality of Kaloyanovo, whose masks reach 6 meters height. Both ensembles from Jakarta, Indonesia, who presented traditional music and dances from different regions of their country had a very strong performance, just like the childrens dance group “Dank” from Moscow, Russia; the mandolin orchestra from Dugo, Croatia with more than 50 musicians; the musicians and dancers from the University in Makasar, Indonesia. Especially for the performance of the Iranian vocal-instrumental group arrived the culture attaché of the Embassy of Iran in Bulgaria – Mr. Mohamed Ali Kiani. The Championship will continue until 31 August, as more than 90 folklore collectives with more than 2000 participants from dozens of countries from the whole world, among which Indonesia, Iran, Georgia, Armenia, Croatia, Russia, Turkey and more and ensembles from all the ethnographic regions from Bulgaria.

The organizers of the Championship are: World  Association of Folklore Festivals – WAFF, European Association of Folklore Festivals – EAFF and World folklore academy. Seven concerts with duration of 5-6 hours will be held on the stages of Burgas and the resorts Obzor and Saint Vlas. In the program of the championship are included accompanying events, like a parade of the participants, which will be held on 28 August in Obzor, a retrospective photo exhibition “World folklore heritage”, which presents moments and faces from previous championships, workshops and more.  Competent jury with Chairman Prof. Nikolai Kravtsov – Dean of the Faculty for folklore instruments in the State university for culture and art in St. Petersburg, will evaluate the participants, as their evaluations will be valid for ranking in the World ranking list of folklore. The criteria on which teams will be evaluated are: quality, degree of complexity of the compositions, stage presence and vision. The best performers will receive a nomination Golden “Orpheus” and will compete for the big title Absolute World Champion of Folklore 2014 and for the Grand Prix, in the amount of 1,000 Euro.  

Until the end of the forum, the favorite of the jury will be awarded during the closing Gala concert of the Championship, which will take place on 30 August. He will receive officially his award – Golden “Orpheus” and a check for 1000 Euro At the forum, traditionally will be granted golden, silver and bronze medals, certificates and diplomas for continuity between generations, for preservation and development of world folk arts, for discovery of the championship and more.  Media partners of the event are the biggest Burgas daily newspaper “Chernomorski far”, and the agency  „Far agency” and media „Faktor”, and the cabel televisions “TV Sat Com” - Asenovgrad, „Stara Zagora” television, „Haskovo” television, „Telekabel Pazardzhik”, „Kis 13 - Ruse”  and the tourist¬information site „Peika.bg”. By tradition, media partner of the forum will be the internet television Eurofolk TV, which will broadcast live concerts of the scenes with the most modern system of HD ¬ TV equipment at tv.eurofolk.com. On 23 August, the concert program of the IV World Championship of Folklore “World folk” will begin at 16.30 on the stage „Arena“ in the Amphitheatre of Saint Vlas.