Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival is an artistic festival taking place every five years at
Gjirokastër Castle in
Gjirokastër, southern
Albania. The festival was first held in 1968 and is regarded as the most important event in
Albanian culture. The festival showcases
Albanian traditional music,
dress and dance from Albania, the diaspora, and Albanian inhabited lands throughout the Balkans and Southern Italy. The Gjirokastër Festival followed the tradition of the Folklore Festivals started in Tirana in 1949.