International Festival of Folk Songs and Dances “Ilinden Days”
Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia.

The “Ilinden Days” Festival was established in 1971. It is the only festival in the Republic of North Macedonia which has a certificate and is an official member of the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals – CIOFF.

The main mission of the festival is for protection, promotion and affirmation through the material and immaterial cultural heritage presented through traditional music, dances, songs, mores, rituals, traditional clothing, instrument, craftwork etc.

Within the festival there will be official festival nights with presentations from the participating ensembles, as well as events such as: concerts, parades, street performances, exhibitions, workshops, seminars, art workshops, vocal and instrumental presentations, gatherings with citizens and tours to other cities.

The program is designed to allow the ensembles to take part on different locations, in front of different audiences, with a different program, in frequencies which allow them to have enough time for presentations, rest and socializing.

In the past 55 years, apart from the groups and ensembles from the Republic of North Macedonia, there have been participations from 204 folklore ensembles from 42 countries from around the world from: Australia, Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Canada, Croatia Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Netherland, Italy, Israel, Ireland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Northern Cyprus, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, USA.

Each year 5 to 10 international groups and about 20 groups and ensembles from the Republic of North Macedonia participate in the festival. Each year, the festival has between 800 and 1,000 participants and over 30,000 visitors follow the program and events.

The “Ilinden Days” Festival is relevant and important for the Republic of North Macedonia for the following reasons:
• the festival provides existence, nurturing, preservation and affirmation of the authentic spiritual and material cultural heritage presented through music, dances, customs, rituals, instruments, traditional clothing etc.
• the festival provides a high quality international program through the participation of the most renowned ensembles of the whole world
• the festival provides gathering, preserving, cataloguing, and documenting original, authentic spiritual and material cultural heritage
• through the participation of groups and ensembles of mixed member composition, the festival ensures gender and age equality with representations from ensemble members of different gender and age groups
• the festival provides a long-term effect by encouraging organized, mass, direct research and continuity of the authentic traditional values
• the festival provides a comparative analysis of the presentations of the traditional values of the ensembles from the whole world
• the festival has economic and touristic importance when taking into account the number of participants as well as the number of guests which provides opportunities for balanced cultural development in North Macedonia

The Centre of Culture – Bitola is qualified to implement the project because it has employees that specialize in ethnology and ethno choreology, as well as special and technical capacity for the realization of the festival.