FESTIVALSKA POVORKA / FESTIVAL PROCESSION
On the first day of the anniversary 60thof Days of Mokranjac, a ceremonial Procession to Meet Mokranjac will pass through the streets of the center of Negotin, a sort of return to one of the most memorable scenes from the history of the festival.
At the head of the procession, in a horse-drawn carriage, will be actor Miodrag Miki Krstović, in the role of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac. Negotin choirs will follow him through the streets of the city, singing Mokranjac’s music. Thus, the song will, step by step, return to the environment from which the composer whose Garlands became one of the foundations of Serbian musical heritage originated.
This ceremonial procession is a reminder of the former parade that began the Days of Mokranjac in the 1960s. At that time, members of cultural and artistic societies in folk costumes participated in it, and at the forefront, on horseback, were participants representing Hajduk Veljko and his bachelors. Today, that image takes on a new stage form: the history of the festival, the image of Mokranjac and the living choral tradition of Negotin meet in one common procession.
This is followed by the opening ceremony of the 60th Days of Mokranjac, in which Miki Krstović, in the role of Mokranjac and the narrator, will recite excerpts from the text Hymn and Chant – from the Life of Mokranjac, by Saša Hadži Tančić.
Thus, symbolically, the voice of Mokranjac will be heard again – not as an echo of the past, but as a call for his music to continue to live, to be sung and to connect generations.
The Procession to meet Mokranjac is not only the ceremonial beginning of the festival. It is a meeting of the city with its heritage, a meeting of the past and the present, and an image of Negotin, which, singing to its Mokranjac, opens the doors of the jubilee, 60th Days of Mokranjac.