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18th Edition of the International Carnival Festival/ The tourist season opens in Korça

2025-06-08 09:24:00, Qyteti im CNA

18th Edition of the International Carnival Festival/ The tourist season opens in

Korça has returned this weekend to the capital of celebration, colors and culture, as it grandly opened the 18th edition of the International Carnival Festival.

With this traditional activity, the tourist season in the southeastern city was officially opened, which every year welcomes visitors from all over Albania and abroad with open arms. Hundreds of citizens, artists, young people and children flooded the streets and main squares of Korça to follow a parade full of colors, rhythm and fantasy. This year's carnival brought not only entertainment and attractive performances, but also strong messages through the symbolism of the costumes.

Zamira Kita, the Korça actress who is part of this festival every edition, says that the scale this year has been larger than ever before, with 400 costumes and dozens of performances and themes.

18th Edition of the International Carnival Festival/ The tourist season opens in

"As always, the Korça Carnival brings joy, merriment, and of course themes. Lots of costumes, performances, we have many foreign groups this year, many Korça groups, and many young people who want to dress up. As you can see, if we count them, we have 400 people dressed up, so that's 400 costumes. We have 6 foreign groups and 22 groups from Korça. Of the foreign groups, we have Greece, Poland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, which brought two groups together," said the actress.

This celebration turned into an open platform for art and creativity, where everyone had the opportunity to reveal their identity and message through costume. Actress Ilda Pepi was one of the surprises of this edition. She had created five different outfits for her colleagues, adapting them to her personal desires and feelings.

"This year was a completely different marathon for me. I decided to choose and create not just one outfit but five of them, to dress all my colleagues, with my desires and passions, to throw them into carnival costumes. Since two years ago I made eagle wings, I decided that this year I would give a little light, a little flowers, spring and happiness. Carnivals are very beautiful, as I see it, I can't give another interview because there is a big queue behind to take photos. This is our pleasure, we come out today for all of you who come, watch us and take photos together."

18th Edition of the International Carnival Festival/ The tourist season opens in

Underneath the masks and different colors, there were also strong social messages hidden. A young man from Korçë chose to represent himself with a bear and a gas mask to convey a message of peace.

"I'm from Korça and apparently, the symbolism of my outfit is this anti-gas and this bear here which means, it's better to remove the anti-gas and keep the love, which are the beautiful bears. It's the message against the things that are happening in the world today. It's my first time here and I'm enjoying it a lot, it's a great atmosphere."

One of the most special moments of the festival was the participation of international groups, coming from countries as diverse as Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, North Macedonia and Montenegro. These artists brought the colors and traditions of their cultures through unique costumes and performances. The Bulgarian group represented a traditional wedding, with scary costumes that, according to them, are intended to scare away evil spirits and preserve good luck, while the group from Greece brought angels of heaven, representing their country with pride and elegance.

18th Edition of the International Carnival Festival/ The tourist season opens in

"We come from Bulgaria. This is our group representing a traditional Bulgarian wedding. With our costumes, we scare away evil spirits and make ourselves look scary to drive them away. It's our first time here, it's really beautiful."

"We come from Greece and we are angels from heaven. We are very happy to be representing our country. It's our first time here. It's wonderful. The people here are very kind, we really like the city. Thank you very much for welcoming us."

The Korça Carnival has become an important cultural and tourist event for the entire country, gaining more and more international attention year after year.

This festival is not just a celebration, but a living manifestation of free spirit, art, coexistence and respect for diversity. With an increasingly professional organization and the involvement of new generations, the Korça Carnival continues to be a point of reference for the promotion of Albanian culture and tourism in the region. / CNA