Ecuador-Celebrating 20th anniversary with 20 participating countries
With the purpose of creating stronger links between folklore and the cultures of America and the World and with the conviction that the best tools to achieve it are Dance and Music; the 1992th Music and Dance festival has been organized. There had been nineteen years of an organizative hard work, success of which emerged this event as one of the most important festivals in Ecuador and one of the best ones in Latin America. There have been more or less 9500 artist from friendly countries of America, Asia and Europe that have participated during the 19 editions of this festival. The main motto of this Encounter is “Only by knowing the living countries is how we identify ourselves as a country” .
Japan’s World Music and Dance Festival
“Every August, for 30,000 people, Worlds Meet in Japan” By Prof. Ian Frank. 
It wasn’t planned this way. In 2003, I was living in the north of Japan and practicing drumming with a local group. They wanted to celebrate their fifth anniversary with a concert, and in front of my workplace is a huge lawn, so I said “Let’s do it!” By gradually expanding from local to national to overseas groups, what started as an enjoyable day out for us and some friends has now turned into an annual five-day international event that passed 30,000 audience for the first time this year. We benefited from stumbling onto the gap in Japan’s events ecology: although the country is brimming with festivals, there were no others that focused on inviting groups from overseas. Because we weren’t really expecting this success, we have the rather unimaginative name of “World Music and Dance Festival”, with its abbreviation WMDF (see http://wmdf.org/en). “Think big big big at the beginning” is just one of the lessons that we learned the hard way. We did better this year when naming our new festival that we co-located with WMDF: the “Mogu Mogu” festival fills the park we are based in with stalls selling goods and gourmet from around the world (“mogu mogu” is a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of eating). Continue Reading
The 10th Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival – Taiwan
The 10th edition of Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival will take place from October 1 to 10, 2011 at the National Center for Traditional Arts, a 24-hectare cultural complex located in I-Lan County, Taiwan. The Festival is presented by the National Center for Traditional Arts with sponsorship of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA). About 120 traditional arts groups from 23 Asian Pacific countries had been invited to the Festival over the past years.
5 Jahre syrisch-österreichische Musikkooperation – Johanna Doderer präsentiert Kompositionen
Ein fulminantes Konzert in der Oper von Damaskus markierte am 23. März den Höhepunkt der bereits seit 5 Jahren bestehenden österreichisch-syrischen Musikkooperation zur Förderung junger Musik- und Kompositionstalente. Das Konzert wurde in einem intensiven zweiwöchigen Workshop vorbereitet. Der Chefdirigent des Syrischen Symphonieorchesters, Missak Baghboudarian, erarbeitete in Zusammenarbeit mit dem österreichischen Dirigenten Ewald Donhoffer mit dem Orchester der Musikhochschule Damaskus ein abwechslungsreiches Programm. Continue Reading
Zum 200 Geburtstag – Franz Liszt
Im Rahmen des Liszt-Schwerpunktes des Kulturforums in Budapest wurde am 18. März die Ausstellung “Vivat Liszt! Hör das Licht…sieh den Klang – Tour d‘Europe„ in der Budapest Galerie eröffnet. Die in Kooperation mit dem Kulturforum veranstaltete Ausstellung entstand auf Initiative von eu-art-network, das ein Symposium im August 2010 in der Cselley – Mühle in Oslip (Burgenland) organisierte, an dem zahlreiche Künstler aus Europäischen Städten, in denen Liszt wirkte, teilnahmen. Continue Reading
Serbian town offers stop over to performing groups
To all those music, folklore, dance or theater groups that will pass through Serbia on their way to other festivals, have great opportunity for one night/ one concert stop-over opportunity. The Municipality of Bojcin, small town near Belgrade has festival of Cultural Summer of Bojcin, where we can suggest some interesting programs and performers. Continue Reading
Dubai Shopping Festival 2011
Launched in 1996 by Dubai Government, Dubai Shopping festival considered the longest and largest event of it’s kind in the world. This event is to support tourism flow to Dubai Emirate, activate trade and entertain at the same time. Millions of visitors every year is a clear prove of it’s success.
This success story makes me proud to be part of it, as some entertainers and dance groups performing there, have been traveling there with my help.
Here they are: Continue Reading
TVE- Españoles en el mundo visita Siria
I already wrote about Silk Road 2010 and the groups that performed during the festival. I also wrote about various TV channels and magazine’s representatives, filming crews, journalists reporting from the site. Recently I received the link from Mrs. Carmina Villar – director of Ara de Madrid, one of the groups that participated in Silk Road festival 2010, about very interesting program prepared by Spanish TV. It is in Spanish, so those that do not know the language will not enjoy it, but it is lovely, showing the best of the country and with wonderful presentation. The program was made during the festival, but it is not only about it, but showing rich history, culture, traditions, monuments and architectural monuments, that Syria has to offer. What is really obvious is the hospitality that amazes every person visiting Syria, be it for first time or any time. Welcome to Syria! See the program of TVE here:
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’453′ type=’video’]http://l3-onlinefs.rtve.es/resources/TE_NGVA/mp4/2/1/1295393870912.mp4[/pro-player]
Yi Lan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgame festival 2011
Yilan International Children’s Folklore & Folkgame Festival, has been recognized as CIOFF International Festival recently and has been one of the most successful children events ever taking place! 2010 festival could be regarded a successful example with 18 participating groups from 16 countries around the world and 586,812 visitors. The celebation of 2011 Yilan International Children’s Folklore & Folkgame Festival is decided to take place between 9 July and 21 August 2011. Continue Reading
VIII Festival der Alten Musik in Lviv/Lemberg
Das Festival der Alten Musik in Lemberg ist das einzige in der Ukraine, das auf hohem Niveau und in großen Umfang die historische Musik verschiedener europäischen Länder präsentiert: vom Mittelalter bis zur Klassik, verschiedene Vokal- und Instrumentalgattungen, weltliche und kirchliche Opern und Oratorien. Jedes Jahr steht das Festival unter einem thematischen Schwerpunkt, der mit der Musikkultur der Region Lemberg verbunden ist. In den letzten Jahren fand das Festival unter den Themen “Lemberg-750 Jahre„ (2006), “Aus der Zeit der Rzecz Pospolita„ (2008), oder “Aus der Zeit der Hetmanschaft„ (2009) statt. Das diesjährige VIII Festival der Alten Musik in Lemberg steht unter dem Titel “Musikalisches Lemberg und das Erbe aus der Habsburger Monarchie„. Die Habsburger Periode der Lemberger Geschichte dauerte von 1772 bis 1918. Das Schaffen in dieser Epoche bildet den Grundstock des Konzertprogramms, der Großteil ist jener Musik gewidmet, welche in Lemberg oder in Galizien geschaffen wurde. Continue Reading