To date, the festival has featured about 2,000 folk artists from 40 countries from all over the world, said its director, Zeljko Stajcer, who is also the Croatian representative of UNESCO's International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF).
The CIOFF certificate which the festival received in Mexico in 2013 is proof of its quality. Every year it features good and frequently very exotic groups presenting the traditions of various world peoples.
Stajcar said numerous dancers from around the world wanted to come to the festival to contribute to the preservation and survival of traditions. He added that traditions must be strategically protected at state and local level, but that this was not so.
Festival secretary Kristina Medaric said 360 groups had applied for this year's event and that it had been very hard to choose only five because for financial reasons.