Celebration of folklore and regional gastronomy in the Slovak Paradise National Park

On Saturday, July 15, 2023, hundreds of fans of Slovak folklore and good food visited the mountain village of Vernár in the Slovak Paradise National Park. The aim of their visit was the international festival Wedding in Paradise, which took place in the local amphitheatre. This extraordinary festival was held as a part of the Creative Mountains project implemented under the auspices of the Machaon International Nature Conservation Association with support of Creative Europe programme. The audience of the festival had the opportunity to experience a rich cultural program presented by folklore and theatre groups from Slovakia, Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine: the Folklore Ensemble “Sar Sar” of the State Song Theatre from Armenia, the Kazbegi Folklore Ensemble from Georgia, the Matičiar and Fanúšikovia Matičiar folklore ensembles from Ukraine, the Vernár Folklore Group from the village of Vernár, the Bacúšan Folklore Group from the village of Bacúch, The male singing group Šambriňci from the village of Šambron, the Folklore group Šarišan from the town of Prešov, the theatre groups Orichovčanka, Kralovička, Kamjanička and Hutyanočka from Ukraine, as well as the creative group of the initiative “Tatras help Ukraine”. Together they created a really valuable cultural program that we will remember for long.

Traditional Folklore Festival in Vernar village was enriched by fair of crafts, organic farming products and master-classes of culinary heritage. This activity is very innovating for Vernar. A gastronomic fair with presentations and tastings of the best regional specialties from the region of Slovak Paradise was  a big attraction. Local cheese, dairy products, traditional pastries, herbal teas, vegetarian pilaf, baked sausages, Slovak goulash and Ukrainian borscht – this is not a complete list of delicacies that the guests of the festival had the opportunity to taste.

The integral part of the preparation of the festival will be creative camp for 20 Ukrainian and Slovak children who will help to prepare festival, take part in art-photography master-classes and explore unique natural and cultural heritage of Slovak Paradise national park. Children’s performances, games and creative workshops were prepared during the day specially for kids. At the end of the festival program, the artists together with the audience enjoyed the evening at a folk dancing party.

The festival was also visited by a group of bloggers and influencers from eight European countries. From July 8 to 16, 2023, they visited Slovakia as members of the Travedding art expedition, during which they explored, captured and shared with the world the exceptional cultural and natural values of the Slovak Paradise National Park. The art expedition was also held as part of the Creative Mountains project.
We sincerely thank all the guests who decided to visit our festival. We believe that it was a nice experience for them.

Last but not least, our thanks go to our partners and sponsors, without whose generous help the Wedding in Paradise festival and the Travedding art expedition could not be successfully arranged.
We are already looking forward to the following events of the Creative Mountains project with our project partners in Georgia and Armenia.

The project Creative mountains is implemented by the team of like-minded organizations with the support of European Union

Posted by: Martin Pižem
email: travedding@gmail.com