The Eighth Annual Festival "Prague - Heart of the Nations" will be held on May 25 - 28, 2006 in Prague. It is a multicultural and multiethnic event of international importance.

This project is the biggest common action of ethnic groups and minorities living in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic.

The Capital City of Prague lent a helping hand to the organizers right at the birth of the festival. The response of the past seven festivals gives us hope that this international event has already taken root in the Prague cultural life and has become another of its ornaments and magnets. It has brought the richness and traditions of other nations and ethnic groups nearer to the Czech public. The International Folk Festival "Prague - Heart of the Nations" has been established as an attempt to reduce ethnic conflicts that are arising and even multiplying in today's world. We believe that it has reached its goal. Each concert of the Festival might serve as a proof that music, singing and dancing form the universal language for understanding in the areas where words are not sufficient. It presents the traditional folk culture of different nations as a part of the Czech culture, or perhaps the world´s one. It is a unique signal of our positive relation to and respect for individual ethnic groups.

In Prague there will be a gathering of about 500 participantsfrom 20 domestic as well as foreign ensembles. It will be similar to the past events when the Prague cultural public took pleasure in a wonderful display of folk art, whether Czech, Bulgarian, Slovak, Polish, Serbian, Russia, Russniak, Ukraine, Hungarian, Greek, Roman or Moravian one.
The folk art was then presented in its dance, musical and vocal forms. More than 4400 spectators visited concerts in the theatre "U Hasičů", the gala programme in Lucerna, in the church of Blessed Salvatore, on the Námestí míru Square, and Namestí Jiriho z Podebrad Square, in the Reduta and on the Old Town Square, Theatre "na Vinohradech".

Although the Slovak minority created in the years of the former Czechoslovakia has been an instigator of the meeting, other ethnic associations and unions have taken part right from the beginning as well, with the Capital City of Prague and SFZ Limbora as chief organizers.

Co organizers are:
The Polish Club, The Association of Hungarians, The Bulgarian Club, The Association of Greek Men, The Lyceum of Greek Women, The Ukraine Initiative, The Cultural Association of Citizens Belonging to the German Ethnic Group, The Association of Germans, Etnica,The Romany Clubs, The Russian Club, Detvan, The Club of Slovak Culture and others.

This multiethnic event will be held under patronage of the Attorney for Human Rights in Czech republic Svatopluk Karásek and the Capital City of Prague.

This event is absolutely non-commercial. The festival has been opened for the public at various public places for free or for a notional price in the theatres.

The participating ensembles do not stake their claim to the fee even if they are outstanding representatives of individual cultures. The ensembles charge necessary overhead expenses (accommodation, catering). This precondition holds for the organization of the eighth festival as well.

The invited ensembles are from these countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the Ukraine, Russia, Ireland, Israel, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Yugoslavia, Croatia, France, Poland, Italy, Romania, Netherlands, Senegal, India.