27 May, Minsk /Tatsiana Pastushenka - BELTA/. The theme of the 65th anniversary of the Soviet people's victory in the Great Patriotic War will be the leitmotif of the VIII Republican Festival of National Cultures, which will be held in Grodno from June 4-6. This was announced today at a press conference by the Deputy Minister of Culture of Belarus, Tadeusz Strazhevsky, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. "While preserving the basic traditions of its organisation, each festival of national cultures acquires some unique features. The peculiarity of the current festival is that the majority of its events will be dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory. The theme of war and victory will be traced through almost everything," noted Tadeusz Strazhevsky. Another feature of this year's celebration will be the operation of 40 national homesteads at the festival, whereas there were 27 at the previous festival. The programme has also been significantly expanded: over 70 events will be held, some of them for the first time. In addition, participation of international and foreign delegations, representatives of embassies of various countries in Belarus, as well as twin cities of Grodno is planned. During the festival, it is planned to consider a proposal for its accession to the International Organisation of Festivals, in order to attract even more attention from Europe and the whole world to this unique cultural event and to present it abroad. The idea of holding a festival of national cultures can also be used by other countries. "The festival is unique not only in Belarus but also in the whole of Europe. Events of this format are not yet held in other countries," said the Deputy Minister of Culture. Tadeusz Strazhevsky recalled that the opening of the VIII Republican Festival of National Cultures took place in May last year at the Belarusian State Philharmonic. Regional and city festivals, which can be called qualifying rounds, were held from October to December 2009. Over 2.5 thousand people performed with concert programmes during this time. For the final events in Grodno, the republican jury invited 792 representatives of different nationalities, including 74 ensembles and 122 individual performers. During the qualifying rounds, programmes were prepared by representatives of nationalities that had not previously participated in the festival, such as Tajiks, Turkmens, and Turks. While representatives of 11 nationalities participated in the I Republican Festival of National Cultures, their number has increased to 33 this year.