Dagestan opens international festival "Mountaineers"

The 4th International Festival of Folklore and Traditional Culture "Mountaineers" was launched in Makhachkala; its participants will give travel concerts in different districts of Dagestan.

The event is attended by companies and ensembles from Croatia, Poland, Turkey, Serbia, Azerbaijan and many regions of Russia.

A festival event named "Poetry of National Costume" took place in Makhachkala, where costumes of various nations of Dagestan, Russia and foreign countries were presented. Marita Mugadova, Director of the Republic's House of People's Creativity, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that "preservation of folk costume, as a unique ethnic component of nation's cultural heritage, is now very topical."

"The festival of national costumes aims not only at revealing original, rare and ancient traditional national costumes, but also at stimulating the interest of designers, artists, masters-arts-critics to study, preserve and development cultural traditions of national costume," she explained.

The International Festival of Folklore and Traditional Culture "Mountaineers" was founded in 2004 by a government's statement of Dagestan. It is held every second year is in the annual calendar of priority folklore international festivals of UNESCO.