The Austrian Association of Serbian Folklore (AASF) is slowly bringing to an end the final preparations for the event that will mark the national holiday – the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag on 15 September in Graz. The Electoral Assembly will be held as part of the celebration of this holiday, so changes in the Association are expected already at the beginning of autumn.

– We are busily working on the celebration of the Serbian Unity Day, during which we will also have our Electoral Assembly, where the Board of Directors will be elected and refreshed a bit with new people, ideas, and new strength – says Aleksandar Stanković, president of AASF.

He is pleased that a large number of AASF member societies have confirmed their attendance.

– Two thirds of active members have confirmed their coming, and there is still time until the event. We are very optimistic and I think that with this critical mass we can devise a new high-quality plan for the coming period – said Stanković.

The Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag will be celebrated on 15 September in Graz, Styria.

– In addition to local societies and representatives of the Alliance of Serbs in Styria, we expect to also welcome guests from the local self-government and we would like to draw their attention to our people in Graz, in Styria, who live there, work there, have their own needs, but also have something to offer, in order to create a quality exchange for the future – said Stanković.

He added that Styria was a ‘rather sleepy’ province regarding Serbian societies, since there was only one. Now, he says, there are more of them, so there is a greater potential for cooperation.

Children’s Festival in November

In addition to the celebration of the Serbian holiday, the AASF is also preparing other events for the coming fall, in particular the Children’s Folklore Festival to be held on 23 November in Vienna. The youngest folklorists will present their dancing and singing skills practiced over the past year, to the audience in the Hallmann Dome in Vienna.

– We hope and believe that we will manage to find an adequate way and agreement with the Alliance of Serbs to organize it with a Knowledge Quiz and to return to what was once there, because I think it is a good practice – Stanković said.

Immediately after the Children’s Festival will begin the organization of the First Ensembles Festival in Austria, to be held on 10 March 2025 in Klagenfurt.

Source: Vesti online

Photo: Austria Info