(taken over from www.lokalno.si)

At the end of the last week, members of senior children folklore group Kres were in a hurry to get to Bosnia and Herzegovina as they wanted to see the results of their work. To wit, in the past half a year, upon the idea of the Society for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo mesto and the invitation by the Association of Slovenians of the Republic of Srpska “Triglav“ Banja Luka, they came once a month for folklore workshops for children of Slovenians who live there.

Under the leadership of Majda Nemanič they prepared the programme for a joint performance with which they presented themselves on Saturday at the 4th Slovenian Day in Slatina near Banja Luka.

A joint performance by Kres members and children from Banja Luka reflected playing, dancing and singing of our grandmothers while Kres members presented themselves also by their own programme accompanied by accordion players Gašper Kavšk, Sandi Ravbar, Gašper Kastelic and Sandra Verbič. At the invitation by the Association of Slovenians “Lipa” they repeated their performance in Prijedor at the Summer Nights organised by the municipality of Prijedor.

At both events did the young members prove to be true professionals as they thrilled the audience by Slovenian words and songs. Perhaps even more important that they got was what they got for themselves – socialising with their peers, making new permanent friendships, getting familiar with the culture of other people and sightseeing spots of the city of Banja Luka.

This did not bring the cooperation to an end – they will be together on 5 July as well, when they will make a joint performance in Ljubljana at the Welcome Home 2013, summer gathering of all Slovenians traditionally organised by the Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians Abroad while the focus of this year’s event is on the young people from Slovenia and abroad.


Andreja Bartolj Bele