Three and a half years ago, an initiative of the Municipality of Fier came to life, together with the consolidated partner Teatro Pubblico Pugliese (Puglia), to create and promote a network of theatres of Albania, Puglia and Montenegro. The idea of this networking was concretized in a project of theatres’ performances called “The De-Fest Theatre (Debate & Festival)”, which has been operating for 4 years, presenting this year its 4th Edition. A year later, this initiative turned into a winning Project in the IPA-Italy-Albania-Montenegro Program 2014-2020, entitled "TOURNEE", which together with the De-Fest, is in this year in its third edition, entitled "Tournee/De-Fest Theatre ", financially supported and organized under the institutional umbrella of the European Union, funded through the IPA Program. 

The Municipality of Fier is the Lead Partner in this Project, with the Municipality of Barletta (Italy), the Municipality of Tirana and the City “Grad” of Budva (Montenegro) as partners. In this year's edition, the Municipality of Fier is realizing the Tournee and De-Fest Theatre’s final event, in the form of a theatre festival mixed (coming up as pure novelty) with elements of opera singing and folk music from a folk band. In line with the calendar of activities, everything was running smoothly and this Project would have been closed in April-May of this year, but the extraordinary situation with the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the closing program of the Project, as it happened with all IPA and other EU programs, for a period of 6 to 12 months. 

This situation brought the Municipality of Fier to re-conceptualize the closing activity of the Project (its Final Event) to occur in September-October in Fier region and in December of this year in Barletta, Italy. The decision to divide the Final Event into two phases comes as a successful coronation of the Project so far, due to the invitation that the Municipality of Fier received from the Management Authority of the IPA program. The invitation says that in December this year, the Municipality of Fier will carry out a thematic activity in Barletta, Italy. The Municipality, in cooperation with the Managing Authority of the IPA Program and the Puglia Region will realize “A Concert for Peace”, as a conclusion of the IPA 2014-2020 Programme and marking the launching and presentation of the new IPA 2021-2027 Programme, as the capitalization of the achievements of 2014-2020 Programme. 

In his address to the final event of the Fier region activities, the Director of the Managing Authority of the Interreg-IPA CBC Program Italy-Albania-Montenegro, Prof. Eng. Domenico Laforgia, among others, highlighted that “The area has a common cultural and historical heritage, which may be the key for the economic and social development of the area, especially in the touristic sector. We also know there is a high quality level of artistic productions, which can be shared among countries and regions in the programme. Your project managed to meet these needs and to achieve excellent results. The establishment of a closer cooperation among key actors in theatrical sector by a Cluster of Theatre Institutions, which is going to continue even after the project end, offers to local communities a concrete support for their tourist economic growth, as well as it can improve public policies in cultural and tourist sectors. 

A concrete example of this successful cooperation are the cross-border theatrical festivals, which were organised through your project. We are convinced that this project is a best practice for the great success in sharing the knowledge and in creating cooperation structures, which are going to work far beyond the project life. Because at the end, the long-term impacts are what makes the difference between a normal project and an excellent project. For the future: Tourism and promotion of the cultural heritage are still key cross-cutting issues for the 2021-27 programming period. The same applies in the new Interreg Italy-Albania-Montenegro, which is being developed right now”. Returning to this year's Edition, the festival of Final Event activities in Fier region started with the Fier Book Fair 2020 (September 10- 13, 2020), continued with the presentation of Focus 2020 Awards (from a contest of artistic photos submitted by professional photographers of European countries and beyond, especially from Southwest Balkans) on September 18, 2020, the Apolo Visual Colony (September 20-25, 2020), the Traditional Foods & Wine Puglia-Myzeqeja-Budva Festival (September 20, 2020), the Photo Exhibition “From Myzeqeja with love ”(September 26. 2020), as well as “The Story-telling Tourist Guide” Tour (September 25-26, 2020). The culmination of this Edition’s activities is today’s (October 03rd, 2020) concert illuminating the Apolonia’s sky in the Odeon of the National Archaeological Park of Apolonia. 

The concert will present the mono-comedy entitled “Briefly Zef” and performed by the known actor Arben Derhemi (in a musical format), with the participation of the prominent tenor Josif Gjipali, while the subsequent comedy, entitled “The White Mourn”, adapted from the known comedy with the same title of the author Foqion Postoli, will be performed by actors of the Bylis Theatre, with participation of the internationally accredited tenor Kastriot Tusha, the soprano Eriona Gjyzeli and the musicians of the “Myzeqeja” folk band. All these events are organized online, with a dispersed limited attendance at the Odeon’s stairs and respecting the strict anti-COVID 19 measures. The Municipality of Fier, will upload the Final Event in the Programme’s Platform system, to make this visible for the IPA programme purposes and also for the cultural tourist destinations. The second phase of the “Tournee/De-Fest Theatre” final event will be developed in Barletta, Italy, where the Municipality of Fier will organize on December 9, 2020 the comedy-concert "The White Mourn" and the artistic photography “From Myzeqeja with love”, while on December 12 a Concert for Peace, with television coverage from the Albanian Radio-Television, the Television of the Puglia Region and the National Television of Montenegro. 

* Agron Xoxa - Head of Art-Culture department at Fier Municipality