“"For all 50 years I have lived with and for poetry, which is eternal youth and beauty and a happy potion. If anyone ever wanted to disable me and make me unhappy out of misunderstanding, rivalry or hatred, they tried to take my poetry away. This happened twice before the war in Šoštanj - and there were also those in Celje who wanted to take it away from me. Maybe that is why there was a 12-year break between the first two festivals.
"And yet the song, and through it, I myself, was so strong that I kept the song, and the song kept me going even during the hardest days of my life."”
(From Vrežet's thank-you speech to his colleagues on his 70th birthday)

Jurče Vreže (1906–1987), a Slovenian choirmaster, music pedagogue and organizer, was one of the most important founders of youth choral singing in Slovenia and the central figure of the Youth Singing Festival in Celje.

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