Azerbaijani mugham to sound at UNESCO festival

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Lithuania‘s Klaip?da city will host International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival “Lauksnos”.

The festival of UNESCO will take place on July 13-16 and present a broad spectrum of protected and protectable traditional cultural elements.

Symbolically, 'lauksnos', a word of the extinct Prussian language meaning 'stars', 'lights', has been chosen as the name of the festival. It is the first event of its kind in Lithuania, representing only traditional cultural elements protected by UNESCO: traditional oral, musical culture and folk art masterpieces of the world's nations.

Famous music bands from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Spain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Ukraine will perform on the same stage within the festival. 

Mugham singer Konul Mammadli, Adalet Behbudov (tar) and Parviz Farhadov (kamancha) will represent Azerbaijan at the festival, Azertac reported.

Azerbaijan became member of UNESCO on June 3 1992, after restoration of its independence.

The gems of Azerbaijani culture, including  the Icherisheher (Old City), Maiden Tower and Shirvanshah's palace was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000, while since 2007 the Gobustan National Historical-Artistic reserve also listed among these heritages.

UNESCO’s Heritage list also includes the Novruz holiday, Azerbaijani mugham, national ashig art, the national carpet, traditional Kalagayi headwear and national musical instrument “tar.”