Karlovac, Croatia. In July, a new harinama festival tour is starting in Europe`s Adriatic region. This will be the seventh since its start in 2004, and it will be performed in seven countries.

The festival has gotten bigger year by year. In the first year, there were only five devotees touring in one car, squeezed together with deities, musical instruments and decorations for three weeks. In 2009, there were twenty devotees in two vans and two cars, and the tour lasted for two months. Since the summer of 2004, the organizers performed 450 harinams in 93 different cities in three countries: Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. This year the tour is expanding even more. The program is planned to be performed in seven Mediterranean countries: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia.

In July and August, the Mediterranean region hosts about twenty million tourists each year. The festival provides the devotees on the tour with opportunities to start new partnerships with different NGOs, to create new bridges for cooperation and to promote eternal spiritual values in the conflict-ridden, multinational and multi-religious Balkan countries. This will be the first festival year in Albania, where, twenty years ago, devotees led by Bhaktivaibhava Swami were stoned for wanting to perform a harinama after a college program. Since then, there has been practically no ISKCON activity in the country. For the historic occasion of the new tour in 2010, the BBT has printed two new books in the Albanian language.

The festival organizers would appreciate any contribution that could allow them to purchase and ship the Albanian books, to cover travel and administration expenses and buy the necessary musical and technical instruments.

The bank account number is:

2402006 – 7701167346

IBAN: HR4824020061100563686

SWIFT: ESBCHR22

For further info please contact udruga.avadhuta@gmail.com, +385 47 600 601, or visit www.avadhuta.hr/index-eng.php