The Beskonačnost Slavena Festival (Infinity of the Slavs Festival) was held in Zagreb from June 6 to 8, 2025, at the Czech National Home in Zagreb. It was organized by the Besediranje Association, the Association for Interslavic Culture, and the Interslavic Union, with the Institute for Development and International Relations and the Center for Sustainable Development through Culture participating as co-organizers within the framework of the project Essence and Colours of Sustainable Regional Development in the Republic of Croatia – BORE. The festival aimed to present and affirm Slavic culture through contemporary artistic expression.
The rich three-day program included multiple parallel activities, such as performances by folk and cultural ensembles, classical music concerts featuring Slavic composers, a traditional slavic products fair, as well as workshops, expert presentations, and panel discussions.
Marko Raič from the Institute for Development and International Relations gave a presentation titled Slavic Culture in the Creative Industries, in which he emphasized the importance of the presence of Slavic culture within the field of contemporary creative industries. He highlighted that Slavic culture, rich in both tangible and intangible heritage, offers exceptional resources for creating innovative and successful products in today’s digital and globalized world. Increasing influence of Slavic culture in the production of creative content was particularly emphasized with an outstanding example of the Polish series “The Witcher”, a globally popular fantasy novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski. Rooted in Slavic mythology and imagination, the Witcher series has achieved international popularity not only through the books and the Netflix adaptation, but also as a successful video game franchise, with over 75 million copies sold. This places “The Witcher“ among the best-selling video games.
