Coat-of-arms of Republic of SloveniaRepublic of Slovenia
15 Years of Slovenian StateSlovensko

Main State Celebration on the Occasion of National Day

"15 Years of Slovenian State"

On Saturday, 24 June 2006, the main state celebration on the occasion of Slovenia's National Day will take place in Trg republike Square in Ljubljana. The honorary speaker at will be the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Janša.

The commemoration event will begin at 21.15 hrs, and will be preceded by accompanying events and a ceremonial session of the National Assembly at 19.30 hrs, which will also be shown on the big screen in Trg Republike Square. The celebration will echo the first such event from 1991, and will combine all forms of art, from high to popular culture. The event will conclude with a firework display at the National Assembly building, and later from Ljubljana Castle.

The cultural programme has been devised by Katja Pegan, Patrik Greblo and Samo Milavec, and in addition to the RTV Symphony Orchestra, 250 people will contribute their talents to the event: poet Tone Kuntner, singers Ditka Haberl, Nuša Derenda, Darja Švajger, Janez Bončina - Benč, Slavko Ivančič, Andraž Hribar, Anika Horvat, Eva Hren, Tomaž Klepač and Boštjan Dermol, Fake Orchestra, The Session Band, guitarist Bor Zuljan, actors Dare Valič, Vojko Belšak and Rok Vihar and actress Mojca Fatur, the Tone Tomšič Academic Choir of the University of Ljubljana, the Veter mixed youth choir, and children's choir CiciDO from the music school of Zagorje, the Flip Piran acrobatic dance company and the Mojca Horvat Dancing School, dancers Rosana Hribar and Gregor Luštek, Dana Petretič and Siniša Bukinac, as well as ballet dancer Barbara Križaj, opera singer Marko Kobal, and tenors Matjaž Prah, Žiga Kasagić and Metod Žunec, and many others.

The accompanying programme at Trg Republike will begin at 19.00 and include performances by the Laško Brass Band with a majorette group, the Bežigrad Brass Band with the Ljubljana Majorette Group, combined brass bands: the Vrhpolje - Vipava Youth Brass Band and the 'Viktor Parma' Slovenian Association of Brass Bands from Trebče/Trieste with majorettes from Povir pri Sežani, the KD Logatec Brass Band Orchestra with the Logatec Majorette Group, the SVEA Zagorje Brass Band Orchestra with majorettes of the SVEA Twirling Club, the Flip Piran acrobatic dance company, the Slovenian Armed Forces Orchestra and the Police Orchestra.

The celebration will include the standard-bearers of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Slovenian Police, the Manoeuvre Structure of the National Protection Forces, the Association of Veterans of the War for Slovenia, the Sever Police Veterans Association, the Association of the War Veterans and the Participants of the National Liberation Struggle, the TIGR Primorska Association, and the Association of Commissioned Officers of Slovenia, and children born on 25 June 1991.

The Slovenian Armed Forces will participate with an honour-guard company firing a salute from Ljubljana Castle, and demonstrating some of their skills. The celebration will also be attended by the first echelon of the honour-guard company, who participated in 1991. During the Slovenian national anthem, a replica of the first Slovenian flag from 1991 will be raised.

The ceremonial session of the National Assembly will be preceded by commemorative sessions of all three chambers of the former Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.

As part of the accompanying events on 24 June 2006, there will be solemn unveiling of a memorial plaque on the platform in front of Cankarjev Dom, with Mr Igor Bavčar as honorary speaker. The Minister of Education and Sport, Milan Zver, will hold a reception for children born on 25 June 1991, in the National Museum of Contemporary History.

On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Slovenian state, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Drnovšek, will host a reception for the 1991 and current cabinets, and for members of the Presidency, in the grand hall of the Presidential Palace. This will be followed by a reception for children, women, and parents of members of the Territorial Defence Force of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of the Interior, and of civilian victims, the recipients of the Medal for the Wounded of the Ministry of Defence, and police officers wounded during the attack on Slovenia.

In the name of the Republic of Slovenia, President Janez Drnovšek will lay a wreath on the Monument to the Fallen in the War for Slovenia '91 in Nove Žale cemetery in Ljubljana. He will be accompanied by the Defence Minister Karl Erjavec, the Interior Minister Dragutin Mate, the Chief-of-Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Albin Gutman, and the Director General of the Slovenian Police, Jože Romšek.

To commemorate fifteen years of Slovenian statehood, the National Museum of Contemporary History has organised an exhibition entitled "United in Victory".

The ceremony will be broadcast live by the RTV Slovenija.