Zürich: Second Festival of Serbian Folklore

The festival was attended by 35 song and dance ensembles, with almost 900 participants from 19 folk song and dance clubs gathered in the Association of Serbian Folklore of Switzerland, as well as two ensembles from Germany and one from France.

Ambassador Bradić addressed the attendees, thanking the hosts, the organisers and, most of all, the participants, for all they were doing for preservation of Serbian identity, language, faith, customs and traditions.

He also recalled important historical events which took place in March: the 2004 Pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija and the beginning of NATO’s 78-day aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, emphasising the necessity of fostering the culture of remembrance.

Ambassador Bradić also invited and encouraged young Serbian entrepreneurs from Switzerland to continue the trend of opening firms in Serbia and strengthening all forms of cooperation between Serbia and Switzerland, particularly with respect to the economy and information and communication technologies.

The President of the Association of Serbian Folklore of Switzerland Nenad Milenković and the representatives of the participating folk song and dance clubs expressed their gratitude for an unprecedented amount of financial support that such clubs had, in the latest public competition, received from the Serbian Government, namely from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.

The hall in Dietikon, with a capacity of 3,500, was fully packed, confirming once again the strong interest of the Serbian diaspora in Switzerland in such events.