Awards and recognitions

LegendFest has been awarded an international EFFE quality mark

LegendFest, the festival of folk tales, legends and myths has become a part of the festival platform called ‘Europe for festivals, Festivals for Europe’ (EFFE). As such, the festival was awarded an EFFE quality mark 2015 – 2016, thus being recognized as one of the best European festivals dedicated to art and community.

EFFE mark ensures the quality of festival content and production. As of this year, as many as 18 Croatian festivals joined the prestigious society of European festivals.

This international project was launched by one of the oldest European cultural networks – European Festivals Association. EFFE represents a portal for citizens and professionals with intention to discover and bring together artistic festivals all around the Europe which share artistic dedication and involvement in local communities as well as European values and international recognition.

Audition for involvement in this platform opened in 2014 and several hundreds of festivals from all over Europe have applied. International festival committee has chosen the first generation of 761 festivals, including LegendFest, from 31 countries.

There are three main criteria by which national experts rate registered festivals: commitment to artistic excellence, involvement of local communities in the festival and aspiration to European values.

All festivals that received the prestigious EFFE quality mark are going to be promoted in printed and online guidebooks at the beginning of this summer.

An award ceremony for the winners of EFFE quality mark was held on 30 October 2015 at the Writers’ Club. The award was received by Ivor Zidarić, the president of Association ‘Wave of culture’ and organizer of the LegendFest.

Simply the best – award for creativity and innovation in tourism

In 2013, LegendFest Pićan has been declared the winner of the ‘Simply the best‘ award for inventiveness and creativity as a unique festival of folk tales, legends and myths.

This award was given to LegendFest by the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (UHPA) and the editorial staff of the magazine ‘Way to Croatia’ in the category of the manifestations-staging of the legends and historical events.

This award acknowledges LegendFest’s significant contribution to the development of tourism in the local community.

Thanks to LegendFest, a small town of Pićan has become a recognizable destination on the map of Istria.

Association ‘Val Kulture’ (Wave of Culture) becomes a member of Cluster of Cultural Routes

Cluster of Cultural Routes is an international network for the development of cultural routes in the region. This network connects more than 40 cultural institutions, tourism organizations, civil society organizations, universities and businesses from Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Currently, the organisation is actively working to develop two cultural routes: Paths of Tesla through Europe and the Paths of Dragons.

We are proud to announce our first steps of collaboration with this cultural network by presenting a festival based on the dragon theme at the LegendFest, the festival of folktales, legends and myths which will soon be held in town of Lukavec, Zagreb County. Also, we would like to announce our involvement with the popular magazine National Geographic about the reportage ‘Paths of Dragons’ arranged by Ivor Zidarić.