The festival is organized by the Government of the Ferghana region and the Municipality of the City of Margilan in close cooperation with the Margilan Crafts Development Centre, the UNESCO Office in Tashkent, the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the “Khunarmand” Crafts Association, the DVV International Branch Office in Uzbekistan and the Association of Cooks of Uzbekistan with the support from Ucell, mobile network and communication provider in Uzbekistan and Law firm COUNCIL.

The main goal of Festival “Atlas Bayrami” is to safeguard and promote the rich intangible cultural heritage as well as support the development of traditional crafts in Uzbekistan. It also contributes to improving the traditional crafts quality and design as well as to attracting (It contributes to both improving and attracting) travellers to discover the region. In addition, the Festival will be organized to help young people and women acquire new knowledge and skills in traditional crafts, thus giving an opportunity to improve the economic and social well-being of the population.

Safeguarding, promotion, and development of traditional crafts are important for the Central Asian region. In this regard, the present Festival will have a wider geographical range: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will also join in the festival. The participation of craftspeople, artists and specialists from these countries will further enrich the festival, provide a profounder experience for the ones involved as well as contribute to the general cooperation in Central Asia through culture. It will offer a great possibility to introduce a wide variety of traditions, styles, patterns, technics and ideas of the region while providing an opportunity for experts to share their knowledge with the concerned audience.

The 3rd edition of the festival will have a colourful programme, starting with practical training sessions for young craftspeople on traditional embroidery, fashion design using traditional textile and felt weaving, as well as financial literacy and entrepreneurship in the field of craftsmanship from 12th to 14th September 2017.

On 15th and 16th September, the following activities will take place:

• International Scientific Conference "Traditional Textiles of Central Asia in the Context of Time";
• Exhibition of Traditional Textiles “The World of Textile of Central Asia: 21 century”;
• Crafts fair of traditional textiles;
• Defile/fashion shows with elements of traditional textiles;
• Folk festivities, including traditional fighting “Kurash”, rope-walking performance, puppet-show; performance of traditional music and dance, the plov contest “Devzira”.