"I am proud that I can welcome all of the participants and to wish them to preserve the folklore traditions, the soul of our ancestors and to pass on to their heirs." With this words the president of the European Association of Folklore Festivals - EAFF, Mr. Kaloyan Nikolov officially gave start of the eight edition of the European Championship of Folklore "Euro Folk 2016", which began this night in Nessebar.
This forum is the first one which is held only month after the accepting the association as an official member of UNESCO.
Concerts which have contest character will take place in Nessebar, Sunny Beach, Sveti Vlas and Pomorie in the period till the 10th of July. Tens of vocal groups, dance ensembles and individual performers from Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and others will participate at the Championship. They will compete in numerous prestigous awards, diplomas and nominations for Grand Prix. The grand prize - Golden "Orpheus", along with the title Absolute European Champion 2016 and cash prize of 1000 Euro, provided by the organizers are the prizes for the winner.
Their performances will be evaluated by a jury committee, which uses the evaluation system of the World Association of Folklore Festivals - WAFF.
In the first concert of the Championship, the pleasant surprise was the performance of Lili Tian from Yerevan, Armenia. She sang the popular Bulgarian song "Ya kazhi mi, oblache le byalo" with an interesting arrangement and exceptional voice data.
The participants from Moscow, Russia - Dmitri Kalinin and Tatiana Rechnaya performed traditional Japanese music. The performer of popular songs - Violeta Balkanska from Lovech impressed the guests from Russia with the songs of Alla Pugachova "Milion alyih roz" and they brought with gratitude and a bouquet of roses.
More of the groups, that performed the first day, have a second performance on July 2 at 18.00 on the stage "Amphitheatre" in Sv.Vlas. The concerts are broadcast live on the Internet TV Eurofolk - tv.eurofolk.com.