The main event of the International Youth Camp was the performances of Cultural-Art Groups from diaspora and Kruševac, which was preceeded by the parade in the city streets.
More than 200 of young amateurs were spreading Serbian culture and tradition through forming unbreakable links between Kruševac and diaspora cities in Republika Srpska, Slovenia, Germany, and Romania in the previous three days.
After the joint performance of all Cultural-Art Groups – 6 from diaspora and 5 from Kruševac, participants were greeted by Mayor Manojlović, highlighting the unity of Serbian people and the goal of the Camp to establish friendships and other kinds of social links between the children and their homeland, to surround themselves with traditions, langauge, history, and tradition of Serbia, and to, beside the knowledge they had been given in the organized workshops, never forget their time during the visits and spending time with their new friends…
Mayor Manojlović also expressed hope that one day some of the participants will come to decisions to return to their country of origin.
Mayor Manojlović handed formal Acknowledgements to Cultural-Art Groups from diaspora: “Sveti Nikola”, Deta, Romania; “Romanijska Vrela”, East Sarajevo, Republic of Srpska, “Brdo” Kranj, Slovenia; “Bela Krajina”, Črnomelj, Slovenia; “Drina”, Augsburg, Germany; and “Janja”, Bijeljina, Republic of Srpska.
Mayor’s Aide for Youth and Sport Nevena Plavšić handed the rest of the formal Acknowledgements to participating Cultural-Art Groups from Kruševac: “Radojkino Kolo”, Globoder; “Zavičaj”, Kamenare; “Mladost”, Makrešane; “Čarapani” and “Lazarica” from Kruševac.
After this part of the ceremoy, Cultural-Art Groups’ performances of traditional Serbian dance followed, making a unique and authentic blend of connectivity, harmony, and unity, through a plethora of colors, movement, and wide array of scene performance. The common line that connected all participants was love towards homeland of Serbia.
On behalf of Ministry without portfolio responsible for coordination of activities and measures in relationship with diaspora, Milorad Đidić held a speech: “An initiative of Minister Milićević was accepted last year, which revolved around organizing camps in municipalities and cities in Serbia, camps for our countrimen from this region and around the globe. Young friends are coming here, to the land of their ancestors, to learn speaking and writing the language and cyrillic script, to come close to sports and culture in the wounderful city of Kruševac, the capital city of medieval Serbia. Thank you for coming here, and thanks to the city and everyone who extended their hands in friendship. You have shown how good of a host you are, how good of a team is managing this city. I want to shake hands with the host – Mayor Manojlović. Thank you so much for making a big effort to make these children from diaspora happy.”
“Big thanks to the Ministry for giving a change to Kruševac to be a host to 250 children. We will give our best to be a good host, and let me remind everyone that these are not simple words of welcome to some guests. These children from diaspora are our Serbian people who currently live in other countries, but they are priviliged as they are both guests and hosts this night. They are one of us”, added Mayor Manojlović.
On behalf of City of Kruševac, Mayor Manojlović handed a formal Acknowledgement to the representative of the Ministry, the financial backer of the International Youth Camp project.
After the speeches, the performance of “Magla bend” music group was the last item on the Youth Camp 2024 agenda.
This was their first concert in Kruševac, which was a great time to perform new and upcoming songs. They planned to record a couple more singles before the end of the year. The group is an ecclectic genre of domestic and foreign pop and rock sounds, in addition to adding traditional and contemporary Serbian tunes into their songs.
