Slovenians in Italy celebrate their culture, diversity

There will be exhibitions, theatre productions, concerts, talks and literary walks in addition to events for school children and and recreational events.

Slofest aims to be an interplay of Slovenian and Italian, but also other languages present in Friuli Venezia Giulia, said Živka Persi, head of the Association of Slovenian Cultural Societies (ZSKD), which organises the festival.

Ten years ago, the idea was to present the minority's activities to locals and visitors of multicultural Trieste, and later to Slovenians in Slovenia.

However, in recent years the minority has realised that the target group is also themselves as an ethnic community in Italy, explained Persi.

The literary segment will focus on two minority writers, Alojz Rebula (1924-2018) and Marko Kravos, while writers Tadej Golob from Slovenia and Pierluigi Porazzi from Italy will discuss how to write a good crime story.

Also remembered will be the 500th anniversary of the return to Trieste of Bishop Pietro Bonomo, a humanist who encouraged Primož Trubar to write in Slovenian.

An exhibition on composer Ubald Vrabec (1905-1992) will be put up, and several concerts given, including of poems written by Slovenian women poets from Italy scored by Andrejka Možina. A meeting with Slovenian athletes who have competed for Italian national teams will also be organised.

Persi highlighted walks around Trieste that focus on the city's literary tradition where the city is being discovered not only as a Slovenian and Italian city but also as a city of the Greek, Lutheran and other communities.

As Marko Rupel from the ZSKD put it, Slofest has become well established as a celebration of Slovenians in Italy.

Voluntary contributions and proceeds from the sale of promotional products will be donated to help those affected by the floods in Slovenia.