Vlora hosts Aulona Folk Festival

TIRANA, May 12 – Folklore groups from eight countries participated in the second edition of the Aulona International Folk Festival held in the southern coastal city of Vlora from May 8 to 11. The festival opened on May 8, the day when Vlora officially opened its 2010 summer season, with a performance by a Kosovo folklore group.
Folklore groups from Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania performed in the four-day festival held in an open-air stage in front of the local stadium.
The festival organized by the local “Bilbilat e Jugut” (Southern Nightingales) cultural center in cooperation with the Vlora municipality is also considered an opportunity to promote tourism in the southern coastal city of Vlora.
According to Sejmen Gjokoli, the festival’s director general, the event which Vlora is hosting for the second year in a row is special because of helping promote the tourist resources of Vlora including the coastal areas managed by the Orikum and Novosela local government units.
This year’s festival also corresponded to the fifth anniversary of the proclamation of the Albania folk iso-polyphony by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The year 2010 is celebrated as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures by UNESCO.