TIRANA, May 30- The National Typologic Folk Festival of Traditional Original Dance launched its tenth edition at the city of Lushnja. Eight competing groups participated in this edition, while three other groups greeted the public. This year’s festival brought over 200 popular artists to the stage. The event was organized by the Municipality of Lushnja in cooperation with the National Center for Folklore Activities. The first prize in this festival was won by the Kolonja group of Erseka, as second was awarded Diber’s cultural center, while the third prize was won by the “Dropulli” ensemble of Gjirokastra. The jury also praised different individuals with the career award, best female and male dancers, and so on. Jury president prof. dr. Agron Xhangolli announced the prizes. The positive feature of this festival was the intertwining of folk artists of different ages and the variety of folk costumes.
The participating groups were presented on stage according to the artistic criteria drafted by the National Center for Folk Activities (NCFA), and after being advised on the terrain by the selection committee. The NCFA works on the identification, protection, popularization and promotion of intangible heritage. It organizes workshops, roundtables and meetings with other cultural-artistic institutions, cultural associations and private groups dealing with art and cultivating intangible heritage. At the same time, NCFA organizes various ethnomusical, choreographic and illustrative publications of intangible culture, and organizes activities devoted to prominent figures of Albanian folk culture, folklore scholars and collectors, performers of melodies, songs and folk dances, masters of artisanship, etc.. The National Center of Folklore Activities is the only state institution specializing in conducting the National Typical Folk Festival and the National Folklore Festival of Gjirokastra. It is a central, specialized state institution, under the Ministry of Culture, and treats intangible spiritual folklore inheritance as a national asset that is preserved and developed in Albanian territories, but also outside state borders such as Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece and Diaspora.
