[IIJ= Gyeongsangbuk-do Reporter, Euibong Yeo, Boseul Lee] The Andong International Maskdance Festival has been actively promoting programs for foreigners and participating in exchanges with foreign countries, making it a truly global festival.

As this year marks the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Korea and Turkey, the performance of the troupes from Turkey was more meaningful.

Korea and Turkey have promoted their friendly relations by similar race and blood, Turkish participation in the Korean War, friendship in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, and hosting the Gyeongju-Istanbul Expo in 2015.

The Andong Festivals Tourism Foundation, during the Maskdance Festival of last year, had been engaged in cultural exchange agreements between the two organizations (Andong Festival Tourism Foundation and Bursa Culture & Arts Tourism Foundation).

The "Turkish Culture Day" event, which was held on the 30th, the next day of the festival, has been held as an extension of festival exchange between the Turkish Bursa Dance Competition and the Andong International Maskdance Festival in Korea.

And in July this year, the delegation of Andong City was invited to the International Dance Competition held in Bursa, Turkey.

During the festival, the Kilic-Kalkan Folklore Bursa team performed "Sword and Shield Dancing" in Bursa State, Turkey.

Various exchange events between Korea and Turkey are under way, and Andong has prepared this year's program in line with such a national policy.

This event was composed of congratulatory comments from the representatives of both cities, foster singing ceremony between representative festivals, and exchange of representative performance between both countries.

In addition, in the festival site was installed and operated the Turkish Culture Exhibition Hall where we can look into the culture and tourism of Turkey.

Although the language and culture are different, this event, which is a tool of human communication such as mask and mask dance, is expected to contribute to active exchanges in various fields such as culture, society and economy between the two cities and further between the two countries.

The Andong Festival Tourism Foundation said, "We are not making the international relation just a one-time exchange, but making it a good opportunity of creating a local culture that coexists through continuous mutual cultural exchanges."

여의봉, 이보슬 기자  yeu3030@naver.com

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