culture

The Eighth April Spring People’s Art Festival ran in splendour on the occasion of the Day of the Sun (April 15), the greatest national holiday.

The event was literally an art festival reflecting the immense yearning of the Korean people for President Kim Il Sung.

The recent festival brought together over 1 300 artistes of art troupes and artistic motivational teams and members of mobile artistic motivational teams and art groups at factories and farms throughout the country.

Young people and women’s union members held dance sessions, while acrobats staged a performance in front of the Pyongyang Municipal Youth Park Open-air Theatre, the venue of the opening ceremony of the festival, on April 12, thereby hotting up the celebratory mood of the ceremony.

The festival, which drew its curtain with the performance by central art troupes and artistic motivational teams including the Mansudae Art Troupe and National Symphony Orchestra, took place at different theatres of Pyongyang drawing enthusiastic applause of audiences.

It was held divided into professional and non-professional categories and a jugglery festival. The performances given by the South Hwanghae Provincial Art Troupe and art group members of the Sangwon Cement Complex, Changsong County and the City of Samjiyon left deep impression on the audiences.

Performers of the South Hwanghae Provincial Art Troupe reflected in a fine artistic way the profound yearning for President Kim Il Sung, who had indicated the way to do farming well while sitting knee to knee with farmers, as he visited farm villages one after another even at his advanced age of 80 for the development of the country’s agriculture.

Their work of peasant dance which included the turning of the 12-fathom long decorative tassels on a cap to the tune of A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain reflected the determination of all agricultural workers in the province who were eager to repay the benevolence of the country, which sent them over 5 000 farm machines last year and ushered in a new era when rural communities change, by having a bumper crop.

A folk song sung by a member of the art group of Changsong County won a special admiration at the joint performance of all provinces and the performance of members of excellent artistic groups which were given forming the climax of the festival on the Day of the Sun.

The artistic group member sang the merry folk song about the favour shown by the President by repeatedly visiting the mountainous county of Changsong where people had been badly off and wisely leading their effort to make the best use of mountains and about the pride of the locality which underwent a sea change, and the audience sang the song together with the singer moving their shoulders up and down ehtusiastically.

The festival, which added pleasure to the whole country to mark the Day of the Sun, ran until April 18.

In the festival, 12 units won group prizes, 48 artistes, members of mobile artistic motivational teams and art groups were awarded individual prizes, ensemble prizes were conferred on 20 works, and eight magicians and amateurs received relevant prizes according to their rankings.