Surkhandarya is one of the most ancient cultural centers of Uzbekistan with original history and course of evolution. Having been among the high developed regions of Asia, a heart of antique Greco-Bactria and the Kushan empire, located on a trade crossroad, today Surkhandarya is a successor of the ancient traditions, a keeper of unique monuments of material and spiritual culture, a nature reserve of folk art where the alive tree of traditions is carefully saved, further develops and flourishes.
The Independence of Uzbekistan has given a special impulse to the traditions of folk culture. The government of our country has declared the revelation of national values as a top-priority task of the culture. This attracted the world attention to unique regions of our country, which are numerous in Uzbekistan, where the heritage of our ancestors is still alive.
The international organizations appreciated the full meaning of the significance of Surkhandarya traditional culture - in March 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the cultural space of Boysun as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The interest to this unique region was again proved by a fact that on May 23 - 27, 2002 in Boysun was held the Open Folklore Festival “Boysun Bahori” - a festival of peace, friendship, humanism and cooperation. The Festival program included concerts, parade of folklore ensembles, competition of traditional musicians for a prize of Turgun Alimatov, competition of epic narrators (bahshi), competition of designers of traditional fashion and exhibition-fare of folk craft pieces. The scientific conceptualization of processes in modern traditional culture has extremely high importance. Therefore, the program of the Festival included the International Scientific Conference. The scholars from France, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took part in the work of the Conference. There were four subject sections: “Folk Holidays and Rites”, “Epos and Oral Poetic Art”, “Music and Musical Instruments”, “Traditional Crafts and Folk Everyday Culture”. The founders of this action hope that festival and conference will become a good tradition that can promote further development and propagation of folk cultural values.

THE PROGRAM of 5-th OPEN FOLKLORE FESTIVAL

May 17th
Meeting of participants of the festival (central Boysun squre).
May 18th
The day time program
Establishment of Boysun Folklore Academy (House of Culture).
Fair opening of carpets, suzanes and traditional clothes (park)
Rehearsals of Folk ensembles ( The main stage).
The trainings of Folklore Academy (at halls of colleges)
Cooks Competition of the national dishes (Oshpasov)
The evening program
Ceremony of opening the festival. Concert (performance) of Boysun’s ensembles
“Boysun”, “Barchinoy”, “Kurolay”, “Gulguncha”
Introdusing of jury and participants of the festival
Professional folklore performance ..

The day time program
Rehearsals of ensembles (basic stage).
The trainings of Folklore Academy (Halls of the colleges)
The Bakhshi Competitions (small stage).
Cooks Competition of the national dishes (Oshpasov)
The Horse games “Kupkari” Command competitions beetwin Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya and Boysun region ( Kupkaridrom)
The evening program
Competitive performances of folklore ensembles
Performance of ensembles from Afghanistan, Russia and Tadjikistan
May 20th
The day time program
The procession of Festival on the main Boysun’s street
The National competitions of the”Kurash” fighters (Stadium)
Rehearsal of a Gala-concert (basic stage).
The trainings of Folklore Academy (at halls of colleges)
Cooks Competition of the national dishes (Oshpasov)
The evening program
The Competitive performances of the folklore ensembles
Gala-concert of the participants of the festival.
Rewarding.
May 21
Departure