The Hungarian Heritage: Roots to Revival programme showcases the diversity and richness of the Central European region, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics said, opening the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

Hungary is guest of honour this year at the festival which has been organised in the US since 1967 and draws up to 1.5 million people each year or nearly 40 million through live media coverage.

Minister Navracsics said the festival will offer not only a Hungarian programme but rather one of Central Europe, of an inspiring multi-ethnicity and interaction between different peoples shared in the region. Hungary is featured at the Smithsonian for the first time with Hungarian music, dance, craftsmanship, wines and gastronomy.

Tamás Fellegi, president of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation, stated in his opening speech that Hungary and the US were connected through historical ties and he praised the alliance between the two countries. He said his foundation had supported the Hungarian Heritage programme at the Smithsonian to promote and revive bilateral cultural and emotional ties as well as cooperation and mutual understanding. He noted that the largest Hungarian community, of nearly 1.5 million people, live in the United States.

The cultural events organised in part by the Balassi Institute of Hungary were opened with violinist István Pál Szalonna and his band and the Juhász family's traditional band. Other acts include the Heveder band, Bob Cohen with Di Naye Kapelye and singer Andrea Navratil. Traditional musicians from Magyarpalatka, Szaszcsavas and Magyarszovat will also be staged at the festival. The model of a Hungarian village house with three rooms will be built at the festival to give home to presentations of peasant life, including dress, customs and old traditional crafts.

A gastronomy stand will have an open kitchen of traditional Hungarian fare.

Each evening will showcase different musicians from this year's winners of the folk talent competition produced by the Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Film-screenings organised by the Hungarian Film Union will show immigrant experiences and artistic visions with Hungarian themes.

The full programme can be viewed at http://www.festival.si.edu/2013/Hungarian_Heritage/.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)