Ohrid, 25 November 2021 (MIA) - A delegation of Ohrid Summer Festival, led by the director Natasa Popovic, participated in the General Assembly of the European Festival Association (EFA), which was recently held in Galway, Ireland. At the gathering attended by the European cultural elite, the Ohrid Summer Festival was pointed out as one of the most successful stories that nurtures high cultural artistic achievements according to European and world standards, and the director of the largest and most important music and stage event in the country Natasa Popovic received the title of honorary delegate. In her address to the 68th General Assembly of EFA, Popovic told EFA's top official that Ohrid Summer Festival has rich festival tradition. “Ohrid Summer Festival opens every year on July 12 and lasts for 40 days, until August 20, for 61 years at the Ancient Theater, in the same place where another type of festival games was held 200 years before the birth of Christ. Such a fusion of civilization history and present is a rarity and a civilization benefit that should continue, and that is why it is very important for that tradition to continue together with the EFA, said Popovic. She reminded that every festival night in the church "St. Sophia", one of the largest medieval churches of the Byzantine period and a church with unsurpassed acoustics, top artists from around the world perform. Popovic pointed out that every summer the city of Ohrid, a city under the protection of UNESCO, as a cultural heritage of the world, welcomes and sends off the greatest names of the contemporary world artistic elite in a perfect blend of culture from before Christ and today in the 21st century. Popovic also stressed that the success of Ohrid Summer Festival is due to the efforts and professionalism of the team, but also the huge support of state institutions and the patron. “My team and I believe that culture and the heritage of civilization belong to everyone and no one. We have been working in that direction for 61 years as a festival, 27 years as a member of EFA immediately after the independence of our country, and that is why it is a great honor and satisfaction for every success achieved. This honor is not only for the team of Ohrid Summer, for me as director, but much more for the patron of the festival, the President and the Minister of Culture in our country, but mostly for the citizens of my country who have been proving their cultural uniqueness to Europe and the world for centuries,” Popovic says. The EFA Association includes over one hundred festivals from 40 countries. The Ohrid Summer Festival has been an important partner of the Association since 1994. dk/ba/