Folkest Festival

Angelo Branduardi (Italy) performing at Folkest Festival, Tito Square, Koper-Capodistria, 1994

Folkest Festival is a world music festival held in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto (Italy), Carinthia (Austria), and Istria (Slovenia) under the sponsorship of UNESCO. It was launched in 1979 at San Daniele del Friuli by a group of young cultural entrepreneurs, journalists, and musicians, initially to provide a meeting point for avant-garde folk music movements, but it later developed new formulas and experiments (stages, seminars, screenings, new itineraries) and new names.

In Slovenia the festival takes place in the city of Koper and at Hrvatini and in total with the other events held in Fruili and Carinthia attracts 50,000 visitors and numerous foreign journalists every year.

Programme

Musical proposals from throughout the world have been presented beside artists of the region. Always open to quality proposals, the Folkest Festival offers a programme that presents established artists as well as new talents from various cultures. Presenting ethno music from various countries has always been the festival's priority. Almost a thousand musical groups have already performed at the festival, with more than 100 Friulian, Slovene, Carinthian and Istrian localities hosting itinerant performances.

Performers

Since 1992 TV Koper-Capodistria has officially covered the entire festival. During the second half of the 1990s Folkest began promoting large exclusive productions, including performances by Angelo Branduardi, the Chieftains, David Shea, the Inti Illimani and Carlos Nuñez, together with Friulian artists such as La Sedon Salvadie and Daniele D'Agaro. In 2002 Folkest hosted the European Youth Folk Orchestra, Los De Abajo from Mexico, John Trudell (USA), Variano (Brazil), Taraf da Metropulitana (Romania), Contempo Trio (France), Goran Bregović (Serbia), Vruja (Istria), Sara Tavares (Cape Verde) and the groups Noa and Esta from Israel, along with several Italian, Dutch, Austrian, Spanish, German, English, Scottish, Irish and Swedish folk musicians.