Khari Bulbul Music Festival will be held in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, after a 30 years break - it will be opened on May 12. The music festival is organized by Heydar Aliyev Foundation upon President Ilham Aliyev's instruction.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, their daughters Leyla Aliyeva and Arzu Aliyeva have already arrived at the Khary Bulbul music festival, organized at Jidir Plain.
Within the festival, musical works of the different peoples living in Azerbaijan will be presented on the theme of "Multiculturalism in Azerbaijani music", a program of folk songs and classical music will be organized as part of the festival. Currently, the final preparations for the festival are underway.
32 artists from 13 countries created unique works for the festival inspired by the victory in the Patriotic War. Artists from Azerbaijan, Estonia, Jordan, Iraq, Israel, Latvia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Greece featured the emotions experienced from what they saw in the Azerbaijani territories liberated from the Armenian occupation on the canvases with the Khari-Bulbul flower prepared for the festival, and created pieces that send an important message to the world.
The "Kharibulbul" music festival, which bears the name of flower symbolizing Shusha, was first organized on the mysterious Jidir plain of Shusha in May 1989 to honor famous Shusha-born Azerbaijani singer Seyid Shushinski. The festival was held traditionally in May with musicians from Japan, the United States, Turkey, Germany, Israel, Italy, Spain, Austria, Afghanistan, and the USSR. It was considered one of the most important cultural events both in Azerbaijan and around the world.
The last, third time, the festival was held in 1991, a year before Armenian armed forces captured Shusha during the first war in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in 1991-1994.
The 4th Khari Bulbul Music Festival was supposed to gather musicians from more than 30 countries. However, the city was captured by Armenia on May 8, 1992. Shusha was liberated by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on November 8, 2020.
