International Children's Festival opens in Turkmenistan

The International Festival of Gifted Children called "The Golden Generation of the Golden Age" started in Turkmenistan on August 1, 2008. It was organized by the Ministry of Culture, TV and Radio Broadcasting of Turkmenistan. The festival will last until August 7, 2008.

485 young talents from 22 countries of Central Asia, South Pacific region, America and Europe will participate in the festival. 250 children from Turkmenistan, winners of qualification contests, will also take part in the festival. They are pupils of special music and art schools, members of famous folk-ethnographic and dance groups, folk and popular song singers, young painters and elocutionists.

The festival participants will be accommodated in modern children's health centers in Geoktere resort area, 30 km from the Turkmen capital. The cultural programme for young guests provides for sight seeing of Ashgabat and its vicinities, visits to theaters, museums and sport facilities, intellectual and sport competitions.

An international Children's Forum will be also held as part of the festival. It is being organized by the office of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Turkmenistan.

The official opening ceremony will take place at Friendship Park, in the foothills of Kopetdag where the Health Track starts, today in the evening. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has sent a message of congratulations to the international festival participants on the occasion of its opening. Welcoming young artists in Turkmenistan, the head of state expressed confidence that this festival "will be a significant contribution to the cause of protecting peaceful and safe childhood around the globe, fulfilling the requirements of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and further strengthening cultural and spiritual bonds between children from different countries."

It should be recalled that the first children's festival was held in the coastal city of Turkmenbashi in the summer of 2006.