Folklore at its highest level
This year’s Folkart program was not only special because of its 25th anniversary which proves the quality and long-term oriented development of folklore culture in Slovenia, but because of the laurels the Lent Festival gained with hard work and long-time experience. The International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk arts – CIOFF is regularly assessing the quality of folklore events. For the first time in history CIOFF awarded the Lent festival with the highest possible grade and officially affirmed that the folklore program of the Lent Festival is one of the world’s best. The grade is based on the experience and opinions of the folklore groups which rate the visited festival on the basis of an extensive questionnaire. It assess different things: the quality of the festival, stage and sound system, accommodation, meals and the cooperation and work of the organizers. Lent Festival completed this year’s Folkart with a “perfect” grade of 5/5/5.
"It’s an very important safeguard of COIFF which enables a continuous improvement of quality and hospitality of folklore festivals. Lent has always been receiving very good grades, but we never thought that all of the visiting groups would give us the maximal number of points and lead to such a prestigious evaluation of our work,” the producer of Folkart, Alenka Klemenčič, commented on the joyous event. She said that in the 25 years they have been successfully promoting the festival as one of the best and most interesting events of its kind and this is why the performers from all over the world always love to return to the city at the Drava river. She emphasized the importance and contribution of the guides who take care of the individual Folkart groups: “Our guides are members of the academic folklore group Študent and know the needs and wishes of folklorists. Their work is definitely a key factor that contributed to such a good evaluation of the festival.”
