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In 1988, Carnival in Aalborg was granted a membership
of the international carnival federation; Federation of European
Carnival Cities (FECC).FECC was founded in
1980 and has more than 160 members in 46 countries world wide. The
main goals of the federation is to contribute to the construction
and development of local carnivals and to enable a collaboration
between countries, traditions and cultures. As such, FECC arranges
meetings, seminars and conferences, where the participating carnival
cities can exchange ideas and experiences. Once a
year, FECC arranges a large international carnival conference, where
the membership countries interchangeably act as hosts. In 1992,
Aalborg hosted the conference and representatives from all over the
world came to Aalborg to meet, learn and exchange experiences. This
event resulted in the first international street parade in Aalborg
- an initiative, which has developed into the well-known competition
on Friday evening, The Battle of Carnival Bands. Since the
first carnival in Aalborg in 1983, Carnival in Aalborg's ambition has been to continuously
develop the carnival and to put an international mark on the event,
and thus, being a member of FECC is of great importance to Carnival
in Aalborg. In this, there are elements of the Carnival in Aalborg,
which are based on inspiration from international colleagues.
For instance, the tradition regarding the King of Carnival, which
has been a part of the Carnival in Aalborg since 1990, is greatly
inspired by old traditions from the southern European
carnivals. The membership of the FECC is highly valuable in
establishing international contacts - not only in relations to
knowledge exchange, but also when it comes to opportunities to
visit foreign carnivals and not the least, the ability to present
the audience of Carnival in Aalborg with an experience of
international standard. As such, every year since the beginning of
the 90's, Carnival in Aalborg has been able to present several international
carnival groups in Friday's competition, Battle of Carnival Bands
and subsequently in the Grand Parade on Saturday.
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