Sedbergh⇔Slovenia Events and Cultural Exchanges 2008
Feb 2008: 26 year 9 students from Settlebeck High School enjoyed the fourth annual school visit to Gorenje near Zreče.
Apr 2008: Slovene language course at Sedbergh CDC, Monday April 14 for 10 weeks: basic instruction in the language (phrases, simple grammar, pronunciation of place names etc.) as well as visits from Slovenians to practise conversation skills, teach how to make the Slovene chestnut cake, Potica, and other delights.
12 May 2008: Comment by His Excellency Iztok Mirošič, Ambassador of the Republlc of Slovenia
“It is my particular pleasure to say that the twinning program between the Slovenian town Zreče and Sedbergh first started after I was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St James’s in 2004. When at that time many people from Sedbergh, Cumbria didn't know where the small town of Zreče from Slovenia could be found on a map, and people from Slovenia also had to locate Cumbria on a map of the UK as well. Now I am more than pleased to see that for the last four years and since the beginning of establishing the twinning activities the relations between twinned towns Zreče and Sedbergh have become very intense and fruitful in all fields of cooperation. Singing festivals, other twinning activities, and many visits in both directions since 2004 are proving that. It is particularly encouraging that Slovene language courses have started in Sedbergh this year giving an opportunity to the people of Sedbergh and its surroundings to learn the Slovenian language with a quite difficult grammar. It is flattering that Slovenian language is taught in Sedbergh as the only part-time adult Slovene language course in the United Kingdom apart from Slovene language courses as part of university courses in Nottingham and London. I am convinced that the language courses and numerous other activities conducted in Sedbergh will encourage and influence people of Sedbergh and Cumbria to visit Slovenia – the country on the sunny side of the Alps – and on the other hand encourage people from Zreče and other parts of Slovenia to pay their visit to the beautiful Cumbria. The fact that Slovene language courses started in Sedbergh this year also proves a great wish to discover Slovenia, and to upgrade the already excellent relations which exist not only between the twinning towns but also between our two countries and peoples.
May I wish you all the success with the Slovene language courses and other twinning activities including Harmony Singing Festivals in the future. The Embassy of Slovenia shall be as it was also the case in the past very supportive of future initiated twinning projects helping to bring our two nations even closer.
Long live the friendship between Sedbergh and Zreče, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.”
Iztok Mirošič Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia
June 2008: Sedbergh was represented at a reception at the Slovenian Embassy in London at the celebration of the national presidency of the EU council.
Article in the Westmorland Gazette, 4 July 2008 with text transcription reproduced below.
FOLLOWING the success of its town twinning project, Sedbergh is set to become a blueprint for other towns to follow, it was revealed at a diplomatic function in London.
The function to celebrate Slovenia national day and the country’s end of office as president of the EU was hosted by the embassy in London. David Burbidge, from Sedbergh, who has organised more than a dozen cultural exchanges between the two towns, was invited to the reception by the embassy.
“It was terrific,” he said. “So many people there had heard about the success of Sedbergh’s twinning with Zreče in Slovenia or had seen us on television and were asking me for advice about how they could do the same with other towns in Britain.”
These included a planned twinning between St Ives in Cornwall and Medvode, near Ljubljana, and a proposal by the Slovene consul in Edinburgh for a partnership between the Caimgorms and Triglav national parks.
The function was attended by diplomats from other embassies and at one point Mr Burbidge was introduced as ‘The Ambassador for the Yorkshire Dales,’ and asked ‘Is your embassy in Sedbergh?’
“It was so surprising that a small town like Sedbergh could be so well known by these international diplomats in the capital even if some of them clearly thought Sedbergh was bigger than it is,” said Mc Burbidge.
“And the Slovene Ambassador, Iztok Mirošič, who has visited concerts in the town on a couple of occasions, shook my hand as I was leaving and told me to send his best wishes to the people of Sedbergh.”
Other guests included Slovene nationals who are living in England and many of them were keen to holiday in Sedbergh, having heard about the welcome that visiting Slovene choirs had received from those living in the town, and the attractions for walkers and cyclists.
Others were businessmen and women keen to stay in Sedbergh while conducting business in the area, including a couple of nuclear physicists wanting to visit the power stations at Sellafield and Heysham.
The town’s next cultural exchange connected with the Town Twinning involves Oktet, a group of 15 male voice singers from near Zreče who are visiting Sedbergh at the end of August.
The Slovene boys aged 15–20 will join up with 45 girls from Sedbergh and Kendal who sing with the BBC Radio 3 award-winning youth choir Amabile for concerts and workshops.
Amabile musical director Charlotte Jackson said: “We are very pleased that we will be meeting this choir from Slovenia. The girls were delighted, especially when they realised how old the boys are.”
The boys will also meet singers from other local choirs, including the Cautley Carollers, The Gladly Solemn Sound, Howgills Harmony and Five In A Bar, as well as joining youth choirs from other parts of England for workshops to learn Slovene and English songs, and taking part in local walks through places of interest.
And English singers, who are busy learning Slovene folk songs, will be joining a tour of Slovenia organised by the Sedbergh singing group Lakeland Voice at the beginning of August and again at the end of October.
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