The first meeting took place in 2009 in Udine, northeast of Italy, on the border with Slovakia and Austria. There is a minority language there, the Friulan language, with some 600,000 speakers. The Italian State legally endorses the language, but is not officially recognised. For this reason, according to UNESCO, among other factors, the risk is high. You can learn Friuli, so they created the unified or standard Friuli in 1996, and they have a local radio, Radio Onde Furlane, which is a benchmark for this minority language. He's been working on an antenna since 1980.
This radio organizes the Suns Europe festival – the word Suns in Friulan means “sounds”. What was initially a meeting, now is a live music festival, since 2015. The aim of the festival is to demonstrate that the minority languages of Europe are alive, culturally with strong expressions and that it is not just folklore: Towards a Europe united by diversity, a real and integrated Europe.
This year, the meetings are held between 11 and 19 October in the city of Udine, and although the festival will be held on Saturday, at the Giovanni Theatre, every day they have organized a wide schedule of concerts and meetings to share literature and other artistic disciplines. Besides the Basque and the Friulan, the following languages have been heard and will be heard until the end of the festival: Aromani, Lower Saxony, Romanche, Farolese, Gaelic and Catalan.
Miren Narbaiza Mice will represent Euskal Herria, with the help of the Etxepare Institute. It will be your second concert, as before, on October 17, you will be on stage. Girl Coyote eta Chico Tornado have also been in Udine, in two roles, during the first weekend of the festival. Here's the program.