Art Expedition Travedding and Wedding in Paradise festival were started

From 8 to 16 July 2023, ten foreign bloggers, photographers and influencers are taking part in the first art-expedition Travedding (from the word travel wedding) in the Slovak Paradise as part of the Creative Mountains in Slovakia project. This unique expedition will culminate on 15 July with an international folklore and gastronomy festival for the general public called Wedding in Paradise, which will take place in the mountain village of Vernár. Bloggers, photographers and influencers were selected from 241 applicants from 45 countries who applied to take part in three adventure art expeditions to the mountain regions of Slovakia, Georgia and Armenia.

The task of the participating bloggers and photographers is to create attractive photos, videos, articles and social media posts of the locations they visit and the experiences we have prepared for them. These materials will then be actively used to promote the destinations as well as the overall presentationunique natural and cultural heritage of the Slovak Paradise. In order to make the created works truly authentic, when selecting the participants, we gave preference to creators oriented on the themes of nature, travel, culture and art, lifestyle, gastronomy, farming and home production, ecology and sustainable development.

We are hosting bloggers from Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Estonia, Romania, Armenia, Czech Republic and Ukraine on an art expedition in the Slovak Paradise from July 8. Here they have the opportunity to experience and capture the natural beauty of the national park, dominated by its famous gorges and rich mountain meadows full of protected plants and animals, as well as the region’s vibrant cultural traditions and gastronomy. Our aim is to highlight the traditional human activities in the area – sheep, goat and cow herding, horse breeding and mowing of the mountain meadows – which have been carried out here for centuries in harmony with nature and have even supported the species diversity of wild flora and fauna. Expedition participants learn about the region’s specific, distinctive values from other regions and countries, and thus have the greatest potential to attract sustainable tourism-oriented visitors.

On Saturday, 15 July 2023, the international folklore-gastronomy festival WEDDING IN PARADISE will take place as the cherry on top of the week’s programme. In addition to bloggers and the general public, we will also welcome our project partners from Georgia and Armenia at the amphitheatre in the village of Vernár. The festival program will be set against the background of the traditional folk wedding theme. Visitors can look forward to the performances of Slovak folklore ensembles Vernár, Bacúšan from Bacúch, Šarišan from Prešov or male singing group Šambriňci from Šambron. A great attraction will be the performances of foreign guests

– the folklore ensemble “Sar Sar” of the State Theatre of Songs from Armenia and the folklore ensemble Kazbegi from Georgia. Within the programme, the association “Tatras Help Ukraine” will present its activities, which has invited several distinguished artistic guests from Ukraine – folklore ensembles Matichiar, Fans of Matichiar and theatre ensembles. The end of the festival program will belong to folklore entertainment. We will dance on it until Sunday, which will be the farewell day with bloggers and guests of the festival.

More detailed information can be found on the website: travedding.com

We cordially invite all media representatives to the project events:

– art-expedition: on any day from 9 to 13 July
– folklore-gastronomic evening of friendship of folklore groups and partners of the Creative Mountains project from Slovakia, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine (park near the manor house in the village of Gánovce on 14 July from 6 p.m.)
– folklore-gastronomic festival Wedding in Paradise in Vernár: opening ceremony on 15 July at 14.00
– press conference after the opening of the festival on 15 July at approx. 14.30 with the participation of the Director of the National Park Slovenský raj Ing. Tomáš Dražil, the head of the Poprad District Office Dr. Jozef Bednár and for the Creative Mountains project the director of the Association for Nature Conservation “Machaon International” Ing. Svetlana Belova, coordinator of cultural events of the initiative “Tatras help Ukraine” Mgr. Alena Kačur, Director of NABU Armenia Narek Grigorian, Manager of MAS Kazbegi Tariel Karelidze and Mayor of the Municipality of Vernár Ondrej Ondrus.

We look forward to meeting you during the art-expedition and at the Wedding in Paradise festival!

Contact: Martin Pizem
E-mail: travedding@gmail.com, phone: +421948222489

The festival and the art expedition are organised with the support of the EU programme “Creative Europe” within the Creative Mountains project, which aims to promote the unique cultural heritage of the mountainous regions of Slovakia, Armenia and Georgia.

This article was created  with the financial support of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them

Partners of the project Creative mountains

Foto: Jakub Antipenko