Volker Reiter, director of Sighisoara city's ProEtnica Intercultural Festival, declared on Sunday for AGERPRES that the 20th edition of the cultural event which spanned five days, was "a true marathon of interethnic coexistence", with over 40 hours of program on stage and a daily schedule of conferences of about ten hours.

"It's the last day of the ProEtnica festival, now at its 20th edition, and what we outlined before the festival took shape, came to life and everything worked according to plans. This means that we were realistic in what we set out to do and we even exceeded the indicators a bit: a 5-day festival with more than 40 hours of stage acts, and a conference program of ten hours a day. It was a true marathon of interethnic coexistence. As far as I could see, the audience was very satisfied and highly engaged. They interacted extremely well with the ensembles, they even took to the stage and turned from visitors into performers. The festival also had an exhibition section," said the organizer of the ProEtnica Intercultural Festival Volker Reiter.

This year's edition of the festival was the second, after the one in 2016, to enjoy the High Patronage of the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, conferred as a "recognition of the good organization, the quality of the cultural manifestation and in highest appreciation of the fact that ProEtnica brings to fruition one of the great values of Romania - cultural diversity, inter-ethnic dialogue."

"I think there is no greater appreciation on the part of the authorities. The festival is not only designed for people to feel good, to dance, to showcase culture. The festival really conveys a message: promoting peace together, strengthening inter-ethnic peace in society, so that minorities become a resource for social progress. If we start turning nationalists, we stop the progress and enter a situation the Yugoslav Wars are highly representative for. And I think that after all, the war in Ukraine is also based on inter-ethnic issues and in order to prevent this from happening again, we must work and we must start thinking about the future," Reiter said.

The director of ProEtnica emphasized that, on an institutional level, there is no other festival in Romania with so many partners involved, starting with the 20 ethnic groups, organizations and state institutions.

In a first this year, the ProEtnica Intercultural Academy, which up until now had been organized by the Divers Association, was taken over by the government's Department for Interethnic Relations, Volker Reiter also said.

Addressing the debate "Political representation of women belonging to ethnic minorities", public policies, gender and minorities expert Fatma Ruxandra Yilmaz showed that the ProEtnica Intercultural Academy organized as part of the namesake festival gives hope to communities, as there is "openness to knowledge, and willingness to understand the other."

More than 700 artists belonging to Romania's ethnic communities took to the stage of the ProEtnica Intercultural Festival 2024. Alone the Hellenic Union of Romania lined up a delegation of 300 amateur artists, with 17 folklore ensembles and two choirs.

The main sponsors of the 20th edition of the ProEtnica Festival were the Romanian government's Department for Interethnic Relations, the Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, in cooperation with the Mures County Council and the support of the Municipality of Sighisoara, the National Agency for Roma and the Romano-Kher National Center for Roma Culture.

According to ProEtnica's organizer, the event is a one of a kind agora of intercultural dialogue and an instrument for reinforcing interethnic peace, for a pluralistic and democratic Romania. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dorina Matis, editor: Diana Dumitru; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)