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Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
Welcome dear member of our community of world – traditional – folk music. I am
Araceli Tzigane, director of Mapamundi Música.
For one year and a half, Mapamundi Música has been
producing a monthly newsletter / magazine, including
interviews with festival directors of some of the most
referential festivals of world music from across
the world. Find here all those interviews together.
This collection covers until November 2019.
You can also access all the rest of contents in our
website, section Monthly magazine. On each issue we
share relevant calls and news as well as other
contents of interest for our community.
If you have this document, you are probably subscribed to the monthly issues but, if you
are not or if you want to advice other person, visit our website, section Contact &
subscription.
Thank you for your attention.
INDEX OF INTERVIEWS ORGANIZED IN TEMPORAL SEQUENCE
Michal Schmidt From Folk Holidays ........................................................................................................... 2
Jun-Lin Yeoh From Rainforest World Music Festival ................................................................................ 3
Luis Lles From Pirineos Sur ......................................................................................................................... 4
Amitava Bhattacharya From Sur Jahan Festival ....................................................................................... 6
Nicolas Ribalet From Sukiyaki Meets The World ...................................................................................... 8
Sergio Zaera From Poborina Folk .............................................................................................................. 9
Per Idar Almås From Førdefestivalen ...................................................................................................... 11
Bożena Szota From Ethno Port Poznań .................................................................................................. 13
Ken Day From Urkult ................................................................................................................................. 14
Mats Olesen From 5 Continents .............................................................................................................. 16
Karolina Waszczuk And Bartek Drozd From Jarmark Jagielloński (Jagiellonian Fair) ........................ 18
Alkis Zopoglou From Mediterranean Music Festival ............................................................................. 21
Tom Frouge From Globalquerque ........................................................................................................... 24
Braulio Pérez From Música En El Parque ................................................................................................ 27
Bojan Djordjevic From Festival Todo Mundo ......................................................................................... 29
Park Jechun From Jeonju Int’l Sori Festival .............................................................................................. 32
Who We Are And Sister Projects .............................................................................................................. 34
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
http://www.folkoveprazdniny.cz/en/
We start this series of mini interviews with the director of Folk Holidays, festival that takes place
in Náměšť nad Oslavou (Czeck Republic) at the beginning of August. Thank you, Michal!
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
MS – I search artist who have music as the first thing, who are specific, who are not only
entertainers, who fits to my theme of our festival, who fits to our environment, who excited me
by their music.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
MS – The main objective is to bring eight evening
special concerts blocks. The whole festival has one
basic theme every year, and each concert block
usually consists usually from three bands and has
specific title and dramaturgy. I want to bring complete
evening program as the whole, which has the own
title, logic, specificity, uniqueness, discovering for
visitors, delights for musicians from these concerts.
I do not want repeat concerts and I invite very often
bands who are in our country at the first time.
I prepare a special short residence projects with final
concert.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult
issues to deal with in your festival?
MS – The most complicated issue is a financial issue.
We must prepare enough incomes from grants and sponsorships from partners.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
MS – The main challenge is to develop more short residence cooperation projects with a special
theme.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
MS – Our festival is chamber family 8-days festival in the environment of Rennaisance castle with
specific dramaturgy of unique world music, jazz, folk concerts and workshops.
Picture: Michal Schmidt by Yvetta Stránská for http://www.world-music.cz
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://rwmf.net/
Rainforest World Music Festival takes place in
July in Sarawak, a Malaysian region in the island
of Borneo.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you
program?
JY -Something that will suit the stages and
venues of the festival. Something that will
complement or be nicely different from other
acts to make a nice contrast. Something with
interesting ethnic instruments. A band with
presence and projection.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
JY – To showcase music from different cultures. To emphasize the importance of preserving
traditions. To present non-maistream music.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult
issues to deal with in your festival?
JY – Logistics and travel.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for
this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
JY – Logistics, finance, travel.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to
go to your festival.
MS – The unexpectedness of finding music from
all over the world in Borneo.
Picture: Jun-Lin Yeoh´s Facebook profile picture
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.pirineos-sur.es/
Pirineos Sur takes place in July in the
villages of Sallent de Gállego and
Lanuza, in the province of Huesca (Spain), at the top of the Pirinees.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
LL – Due to the monographic character of some of the sections of the festival, we look for artists
that fit in the thematic axes that the festival has each year. And then, above all, we prioritize the
originality of the artist, that possesses a unique and
non-transferable universe. We do not like artists
who simply copy success formulas. Sometimes, we
also search a certain heterodoxy or peripheral
character in the artist. This always how the most
interesting things happen.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
LL – As it is a festival organized by an institution (the
Diputación Provincial of Huesca), the objectives are
very diverse: to boost the territory, promote cultural
diversity, promote Aragonese talent, discover new
trends in music, get a musical program balanced
and of quality, giving relevance above all to the
cultural character of the event, attracting foreign
and young audiences, spreading the new tendencies
of roots music…
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
LL – Due to the entry into force of the new Contracting Law, the main difficulty we are facing is
the increasing bureaucracy and the increasing deadlines that are required for the hiring of artists,
production teams, etc. Another important difficulty is that since the festival is located in a small
town in the Pyrenees, it is much more difficult for us to travel, hospitality and even convince
certain veteran artists (and therefore less predisposed to certain adventures) to come to play to a
so recondite and, nevertheless, so beautiful place.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
LL – The main challenge, without a doubt, is to survive two issues:
1) the increasing bureaucracy associated with holding a festival organized by a public entity (it is
much more complicated than when the organizer of the festival is a private company) and
2) the “festivalitis”* that this Spain suffers and that makes the competition harder and harder. We
must remember that when Pirineos Sur emerged, on the horizon there was almost no other
festival in Spain, and I do not mean a world music festival, but of any kind of music. In 1992,
Spain was a desert in terms of festivals.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
LL – It is a friendly festival, fully enjoyable without stress, family oriented, with very attractive
proposals that prioritize diversity above all. In short, it is THE festival of the quality of life.
* This term refers to a overabundance of festivals in Spain.
Picture: Luis Lles en el Periódico del Alto Aragón
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.facebook.com/surjahan2019/
Sur Jahan, formerly named Sufi Sutra, takes place
in Kolkata (1-3 February) and Goa (6-8 February).
Banglanatak Dot Com is a company dedicated to
culture for development and they carry out many
other initiatives related to traditional music, art
and handicraft for the improvement of living
conditions, as well as for enabling the access to
others’ cultures.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
AB – We want to present diversity of culture. And thus each year we try to present variations with
excellence. We also try to keep women participation. We don’t much entertain electric instrument
or electronic music. Vocal is a must for our festival. Usual size of the band is 4 to 7.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
AB – Strengthening Cultural Exchange and
celebrating cultural diversity is the basis of our
festival Sur Jahan, which has a theme MUSIC FOR
ALL, MUSIC FOR PEACE.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult
issues to deal with in your festival?
AB – Getting the right music band within budget
(he smiles). Ours is a non commercial festival and
we don’t much approach corporate sponsor. We
do the festival from our own budget and thus
limited too.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for
this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
AB – Its 8 years old festival, more or less the process is streamlined, Internationally people know
about the festival. Audience is eager to attend it. So not much of challenge really.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
AB – There may not be a festival like this, that’s what all participating bands and audience says
each year. All bands stay together for 3 days in Kolkata, travel together to Goa and then stay
together again. So, friendship get developed, new music happens then and later. We also present
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
a traditional music based opening and create a festival band with members from all bands to
present at Grand Finale. Our traditional folk stage is also very popular.
Picture: Amitava Bhattacharya’s former Facebook profile picture.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
http://sukiyakifes.jp/
Sukiyaki Meets The World takes
place in August in Nanto-city
(Hokuriku region, Japan) every year
since 1991. It is entirely organized by
local citizens (250 persons). With 4
stages and 12,000 visitors every
year, it is the oldest and biggest event in Japan completely dedicated to Word Music. With more
than 150 workshop, residence program, all the generations of the city are involved, throughout
the year.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
NR – Quality, creativity, originality. Projects have to be solid
enough to attract attention in the medias in Japan, and to
sale tickets (high fares in Japan). They also have to be
professional enough to adapt their working method to the
Japanese market.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
NR – Development of the cultural activities in Nanto region,
education of the local community, diffusion of the world
music in Japan.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
NR – The interest for foreign music is limited in Japan, and often restricted to (very) narrow
niches. It is very complicated to gather those cores into a same event.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
NR – The Sukiyaki festival runs since 1991 (28th edition this year). It is fully organized by
volunteers/citizens. Keeping the dynamic, educating new staff, adapting the structure are
complex challenges.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
NR – Taking place in the small village of Nanto, surrounded by rice fields, it gathers the
homemade taste of the local community and the highest artistic quality since 1991.
Picture: Nicolas’ Facebook profile picture
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.poborinafolk.es/
In this occasion we pay attention to a festival from our country. The picture of Sergio doesn´t
evoke the usual image of Spain but the true is that our country is super diverse and El Pobo, in
Teruel province, one of the most depopulated areas in Europe, Winter time is cold and, very
often, snowy.
Poborina Folk talks place in this little village since 1999 in the weekend most near to the Summer
solstice. The program includes concerts of local and international artists, activities inspired on the
tradition and the rural environment, like singing the albada for San Juan, traditional cooking and
workshops. Sergio is part of a big team of enthusiastic lovers of music and party.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
SZ – First of all, we want them to make a style of music that fits somehow in the festival and
which live show was able to capture the attention of the public. And, after that, as programmers,
we must consider the budget we have, as some of the bands that we explore, sometimes we
can´t affort to pay them.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
SZ – Poborina Folk has proved during the over
time that it is a festival that has successfully
adapted to the passage of time without giving up
the objectives it was born with, that are to
disseminate folk music, opting for providing to
the public a wide variety of styles and full filling
the cultural proposals with family activities.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult
issues to deal with in your festival?
SZ – The fact of being held in a locality that does
not exceed 50 inhabitants during the year and
has limited infrastructures undoubtedly conditions the organization of the festival. For example,
we do not have any type of accommodation for groups or visitors in El Pobo. Despite the
economic difficulties, we want to maintain the free nature of the festival, so we must optimize
resources. Note that the entire festival is organized by volunteers. However, these difficulties
mean that the festival has a special charm and has managed to maintain its identity,
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
differentiating itself from other events.MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this
kind of cultural proposals like yours?
SZ – In our case, after 20 editions, the main challenge is to give continuity to the project,
maintaining a varied program, with high-quality, that helps to maintain the magical atmosphere
that surrounds the festival. We are proud to count year after year with a loyal audience that is
accompanied by new people who discover the festival for the first time and are pleasantly
surprised.MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
SZ – Discover the magic of celebrating the summer solstice in Poborina Folk.
Picture: Sergio Zaera in a picture stolen from his facebook.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.fordefestival.no/
Førde Traditional and World Music Festival takes place in
Norway at the beginning of July in many different and
beautiful locations that combine nature with traditional
and modern architecture. The program is a chant for
understanding and always includes a huge variety of
proposals. The festival has had Hilde Bjørkum as artistic
director until the edition of 2019, that happens to be the
30th anniversary of the festival. Congratulations, team!
The artistic director now is Per Idar Almås, who has been
working at the Bergen International Festival and as
artistic director in a chamber music festival near Førde.
We wish him a super nice experience and joys in this
important position. Hilde continues supporting the
festival in special projects. Both of them are in the picture, taken from her facebook profile. The
answers to the questions are by Per.
Thank you, Per, for your answers, thank you, Hilde, for your vision along these years.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
PIA – We are searching for quality and uniqueness for all artists coming to our festival. Also, each
year we are having a festival theme, and it’s a goal to have artists connected to that as well.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
PIA – Førdefestivalen wants to have artists from
all over the world represented at our festival.
It’s a very important thing for us to present
international traditional music to our audience
as well as our own traditonal music. It is getting
more and more important with cultural
understanding and exchange in this world, to
break down boundaries and walls (our theme
this year is “30 years without borders”).
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
PIA – For the programming it is always a challenge to find the right mix of artists on the program,
as there is so many good artists out there that we would love to present. We have so many artists
who would like to come that we can`t even answer them all, unfortunately.MM – Which are
currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
PIA – One thing that we have done in Førde in the past and that has become a bit more difficult in
Norway now, is to get funding for youth exchange programs for Norwegian and international
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
young musicians, which is sad because I really believe in the value of this concept. We are
working on finding ways to do it, and I hope we soon can do this again.MM – In one sentence,
summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
PIA – For one week in July the small city of Førde invites the world to town, with the best artists,
the best music, the most beautiful nature and we’ll do our best to be the best hosts possible.
Welcome!
Picture: from Hilde’s facebook profile
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://ethnoport.pl/
Over the four days of the festival, in the
Polish city of Poznań hosts concerts, dance
parties, performances, interdisciplinary
actions, workshops, film screenings and
meetings for analysis and reflection about
the current and future challenges in our
societies.
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you program?
BS – We are searching authenticity and
emotional truth, high artistic quality, original
or masterful approach to traditional music
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
BS – We invite artists from all, even the most distant parts of the world. And during the events
accompanying the festival (films, discussions, lectures) we focus on the global issues such as
migration, cultural exchange or problems with building a sense of identity in a world of global
exchange
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
BS – Modern forms of communication make it easier to overcome organizational and logistic
barriers. Differences in visas and tax regulations may be a problem.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for
this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
BS – Negating the need for intercultural exchange
related to the increase of xenophobic attitudes,
lack of support from the Ministry of Culture and
weak interest of potential sponsors of the event.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to
go to your festival.
BS – High quality of program proposals and their
diversity as well as unique atmosphere built by
the community festival audience.
Picture: one of Bożena’s Facebook profile pictures
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.urkult.se/
In the faraway village of Näsåker, with barely
more than 500 inhabitants, for 3 days, this
“welcoming and loving festival where
thousands of people can get together and
experience something unique” takes place
since 1995. Great music, wonderful landscape,
peace atmosphere, a market that is an
experience by itself, many food options with
reasonable prices… well worth the plan of
visiting the center of Sweden at the beginning
of August. I know well, as I was there with
Vigüela in 2016 and it is one of our best
memories. For instance, this trip at the “happy train” full of artists and volunteers. Watch the
video under the interview! Ken Day is the heart of Urkult.
Thanks for the answers and the best wishes for Urkult 2019, Ken!
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you program?
KD – Music that swings and moves people…
Music for all ears!
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
KD – The local, international and environmental
perspectives. To bring the world to a little
village in the inland of northern Sweden!
MM – What are the most complicated or
difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
KD – Finding places for all our guests (and
artists) to stay safely and cleanly.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges
for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
KD – Economy is always an issue. We are
almost 100% ticket financed. We want to
balance reasonable ticket proces with keeping the size at a manageable level, so that all our
guests have a great experience.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
KD – Meetings with friends, family and artists from all over the world.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
Concert at Urkult’s “Happy Train” with Vigüela, August 2016
Picture: one of Ken’s Facebook profile pictures
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
https://www.5continents.ch/
Its complete name is Festival des 5
Continents and takes place in Martigny,
Switzerland. This year’s edition will happen
from 13th to 16th of June and I will attend
for the first time. I am eager!
The concerts program is splitted in Concerts
World and Concerts Local Global. The names
are quite meaningful: international artists and artists settled locally, doing world music,
respectively, and two different and complementary objetives. Check more at the website.
Mads Olesen is the Délégué aux Affaires culturelles at Martigny and his words are very
enlightening about the spirit of a festival like this, a spirit that probably most of us, involved in the
world music in any role or position, share. Thank you for your answers, Mads!
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you program?
MO – Artistic quality within « Worldmusic »,
passion, authencity and the capacity to
transmit his/her music to the public.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your
festival?
MO – The Festival of the 5 Continents exist
since 1994 and we can put out two main
ideas: The first one is to permit our public to
discover world music and cultures from all
over the planet. The next one is to engage
ourself through the festival for a better «
together-living ». (Martigny is a small city in
the Alps but 35% of the population comes
from abroad and we are 110 nationalities living together). The festival is a symbol of peaceful
together-living.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
MO – The Festival is completely free, all concerts are free. To offer this, we have to do a big job to
find money and to raise funds. We did it for 26 years. But every year this is a hard business. But
the result is that everybody can come and listen for free to more then 30 concerts, events, art
exhitions…All the communities in the town are working with the Festival. We serve thousands of
meals and this is done in favour of the Festival. It is a quite a hard organisation, BUT the result is
solidarity and local engagement. This year we start up an ecological process to make the Festival
a real sustainable event with recycling on all levels,…
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
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MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
MO – To offer a high level artistic quality program together with the fact that the Festival is free.
To keep a high level of local engagement in an international event (about 100 artists from 20
countries, 15 communities in 2019).
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
MO – A Festival with a high degree of friendliness, free world class music in the middle of the
Alps.
Picture: super nice of Mads’s Facebook former profile picture.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
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https://en.jarmarkjagiellonski.pl/
The approach to traditional art nowadays is
very delicate. Quite often, we listen artists
saying that they “evolve” the tradition and
many times there is a big lack of deep
knowledge and understanding of that
tradition that they claim to evolve. And the
result is a watered-down product that
upholds itself by means of romantic ideas of
a lost time of rural innocence… instead of by
means of the music and its own aesthetic quality.
Perhaps, the situation in Spain is worse than in other countries, as it seems to be a clear disdain
for whatever music comes from the rural world… unless if it is “modernizated” and supposedly
adapted for a contemporary audience that would reject the traditional music by itself. My
experience says another thing. The public is not interested in those halfway products supported
by a self-embarrassment rhetoric.
That’s why this interview makes me very
happy. The Jagiellonian Fair takes place in
Lublin, at the East of Poland, from 16th to 18th
of August in this edition, and its young team
has some clear ideas and wise vision about
how to create a frame for tradition in a
recreational urban contemporary
environment. Probably that’s why they gather
thousands of people with a concerts program
based mainly in quite not commercial shows.
Check more at the website.
Karolina Waszczuk is the director of the festival
and Bartek Drodz is the programme manager.
These are their answers to the mini-interview.
Thank you!
MM – What do you search in an artist when you
create the programme?
Karolina Waszczuk: An important aspect that we
take into account when selecting groups or
artists to invite is awareness of tradition and
traditional music. We look at how they are
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
represented and how their elements are used and processed. We value artists who research
traditional culture on their own and know cultural contexts. That makes their messages stronger
and clearer.
Bartek Drozd: One of the key values is the
sense of community, place, music and
especially people themselves. The
programme is created in a way that makes
it possible for several worlds to meet: the
world of the authentic, roots village
culture, the one that reconstructs
traditional music and the one that uses
and performs it on a conceptual level.
There is a kind of mutual respect that
allows us to look at traditional music
cultures in various ways, while at the same time, it brings out their never-changing values,
uniqueness and improvisations. I think that respect for one’s own culture is a key element, and at
the same time, it is the bridge between these worlds.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
Karolina Waszczuk: We show traditional cultures of many, often distant, regions and yet we find
shared elements, patterns, symbols, techniques. We want to show that culture has no borders;
borders are created by the system. Language is not a barrier but a means of communication. We
encourage learning about traditional culture through different areas, we pay attention to its
continuation, its current state, and the inspirations it activates.
Bartek Drozd: One of the most incredible qualities of traditional culture is its universality and
timelessness. Many elements repeat, often
on several levels and they become the
driving force behind new activities. In
Poland we continue to see the incredible
colours of traditional culture and how they
interweave. An unattractive, old, dusted
thing gains new value. The element of
surprise we try to sneak into our activities
allows us to look at traditional music in a
completely different, yet still the same,
context.
MM – What are the most complicated or
difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
Karolina Waszczuk: Like many festivals, we struggle most of all with financial issues. We are
eager to do many things, but the budget limits us. The festival is free, none of the events are
ticketed. The Fair, where we meet folk artists selling and presenting their crafts is free of charge
for them. We cover the costs of their stalls and accommodation. We do not treat the artists as
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
merchants; we invite real artists who form unique niches. They often spend many long days on
their creations – making them requires knowledge, skill and experience. We want to show that
what the artists invited to the Fair offer is authentic, genuine and one of a kind.
Another frequent problem is the lack of understanding on the part of those who are not invited
to the Fair. As Organisers, we select artists whose work is of interest to us, we do not invite
commercial merchants, and not every amateur artist is guaranteed a place at the Festival. We
have a limited number of places and a restricted space so we cannot always invite all the artists
from previous years, especially when we want to make room for new artists and present new
regions. The choices we make are tough.
Bartek Drozd: Another challenge is also, in a sense, educating the attendees. Many of them
approach tradition superficially, be it music or art. We encounter a lot of situations where we try
to explain why some proposals related to music or art and crafts cannot appear at our festival. It
is a difficult task but yields good results, as we can observe from the 13 years of the Jagiellonian
Fair.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind
of cultural proposals like yours?
Karolina Waszczuk: With a festival as big as this one, there
are a great many challenges. One of them is how to show
traditional culture in a setting that is not its natural habitat.
How to show the character, appearance and function of
respective aspects of cultural phenomena in the most
authentic way, but one that’s adjusted to the space and the
setting of the festival. In Poland, traditional culture is still
considered inferior as there is a lack of education in this
area.
Bartek Drozd: It’s a challenge, but at the same time our
mission and an important task. We pay attention to quality,
detail, elements. We observe a tendency to treat traditional culture superficially. And yet, it is only
in the depth of traditions, year by year, step by step that we get to know its real value and
meaning. And not just us, I hope, but also our audiences. And I think this is a great challenge that
requires responsibility and we are aware of it.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
It is the best interdisciplinary festival in Poland where you can discover traditional music in very
different ways and get to know, through workshops and meetings, traditional culture, music,
children’s games, authentic crafts and folk art of about 300 artists from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus,
Lithuania or Slovakia.
Pictures’ credits:
• Portraits of the interviewed at the Warsztaty Kultury website.
• Maciej Żurek, by K.Bodys, from the fair’s website.
• Kapela Braci Pańczaków feat. Adam Tarnowski, by M. Nawrocka, from the fair’s website.
• Ania Broda, by Renata Orlińska, from the fair’s website.
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https://mmfestival.org/
There are several connections between Alkis and
Mapamundi Música and it is a pleasure to collaborate
with him in all senses. I first knew about him thanks
to Antonis Antoniou, from Monsieur Doumani, who is
a generous links creator, and introduced my band
Vigüela to Alkis for the festival. They played in 2017.
In 2018 it was the Portuguese quartet À Porta do
Cante which was included in Alkis’s program. In 2019
it was the premiere of Rebetiko Meet Fado and Cante
Alentejano.
The Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland
takes place in February and/or March in Zurich and
Bern. Its name is quite explicit about the topic. The
focus is acoustic music, the performances are mostly in little venues, with the public very close to
the artists, and with no amplification. Check the details at the website.
In the meantime, Alkis introduced me his band in which he plays kanun, Rodopi Ensemble,
traditional acoustic music from the Greek Thrace, of which I felt in love inmediatly and started to
work together about it and about the Greek-Portuguese project Rebetiko meets Fado & Cante
Alentejano.
Rodopi will play for the first time in Spain next July 18th in Cançons de la Mediterrània, in Palma
de Mallorca. They will also play at the Jagiellonian Fair, of which we talked in the previous issue,
on 17th August.
So, grateful to Alkis for the kind answers.
Without further ado, here you are the
interview:
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you create the programme?
AZ: The most crucial issue in my opinion is to
find a special and innovative musical idiom in
each music ensemble, which will also be
interesting for the audience of my festival.
Each music ensemble should have a clear
cultural stance as a Mediterranean country
and those next to them but at the same time
it should present a spectacle in an authentic
and honest way. And I’d like to emphasize this last issue particularly, as on the altar of spectacle
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and competition in the music market, many misinterpretations and exaggerations are being
made, firstly from the artists themselves, while at the same time there is the pressure from the
organizers to overcome the spectacle presented at their festivals.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
AZ: My first and most important concern is to highlight the musical idioms of the traditions of the
population around the Mediterranean, which are truly many and very beautiful each, with their
similarities and differences.
Another important point, as I am a musician myself and know very well how difficult it is for an
artist to enter a market, is to give space to very special requests made especially from young
artists.
Furthermore, especially at the
Mediterranean Music Festival, which takes
place in small venues during the winter, I aim
to keep the sound authentic, to reach the
audience’s ears as it is produced by the
human voice or the musical instruments.
That’s why I avoid making use of sound
amplifiers during the concerts and this has
been appreciated a lot by our audience so
far. It’s like having a group of musicians in
your home.
MM – What are the most complicated or
difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
AZ: Unfortunately the most difficult issues
initially always have to do with the funding of
such musical events. There is a great difficulty in finding the financial resources but in any case I
believe that the Swiss authorities are still supportive towards culture and whatever notable
appears.
On a second level I believe that a great problem is the possibility, especially of small projects, to
attract a sufficient number of listeners in order to have both happy, artists and organizers. It is a
global phenomenon that the world is directed more and more by the brands, slowly losing its
sense of personal judgement but also the wish to discover new things. We’re getting more and
more used to find everything ready and this is stultifying us without even being conscious of it. I
hope once we’ll wake up.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?AZ:
Along with the issue I stressed before it’s a great challenge for me personally, using the festival as
a vehicle, to awaken people who love music and make them get out of their homes, where they
have almost everything available on a screen, getting them to know the great feelings that live
music provides you and let them live in a world of interaction, that arises from the exchange of
feelings between artists and audience.
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MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
AZ: The “square”, which includes the creators in their real dimension together with the audience,
ready to evaluate participating live in this process, is the basic principle of our culture, as it was
born and started in Ancient Greece and travelled to the ancient theatres of all Mediterranean
countries, which are still preserved up to this day and continue hosting similar activities after
thousands of years.
As a Greek, I think I am totally involved with this cultural dimension of the phenomenon.
Our festival is a small cradle of culture and forms in its own way and by the forces it has, a
healthy cultural view among the people visiting it. We are very glad that our audience speaks
about the festival with enthusiasm and that’s why they‘ve all become warm supporters of it.
There is certainly room for even more people who are always welcome.
Pictures’ credits:
• Alkis portrait from his Facebook pictures
• Stok theatre, in Zurich, one of the usual venues for the Mediterranean Music Festival. From the
festival’s Facebook page.
• Alkis dancing at the premiere of Rebetiko Meets Fado & Cante Alentejano, took from his website
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Globalquerque! is New Mexico’s Annual Celebration of World Music and Culture. It is held each
September in Albuquerque (New Mexico), at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This year
2019 it will celebrate its 15th edition. Check the details at the website.
It is very heartening to know that also at the USA there is people like Tom and his partner Neal
Copperman that work with the vision of building bridges, crossing borders and tearing down
walls. Thank you, guys, an much success for the 15th edition!
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you create the programme?
TF: That is a question we get a lot! We
program music from the very traditional to
the very NOT traditional (check out our first
announced confirmed acts!), so what is our
criteria? The best answer I can give is that the
artists that we select to perform on our
stages, aside from being fabulous musicians
and ready to perform on the festival circuit,
must have at least a couple of toes artistically
and creatively in the culture from which they
come, regardless of how contemporary or
cutting edge they may be. For example, you
can be a hip hop artist from Palestine or an
electronica artist from Argentina, but when your set is finished, we want our audience to say that
was a killer ARGENTINE electronica artist or a fantastic PALESTINIAN hip hop artist and not
simply, oh, that was a really good electronica artist that sings in Spanish or, I liked the hip hop
group that sang in Arabic. It is about being a great artist AND representing your culture.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
TF: This ties in somewhat to the answer to the first question. ¡Globalquerque! is all about cross-
culture understanding through the arts. All our programming, from the music, to the outreach, to
the films, to our international dance lessons, to our school program, right down to the food
served in our Global Village Of Craft, Culture & Cuisine – todo – is about recognizing our
similarities while exploring and celebrating our differences. It may sound cliche, but we believe
the more you understand other cultures, the harder it is to bomb them!At ¡Globalquerque! we
believe in the power of community and the power of the arts to build bridges. We strive to create
a space where no person is “the other”. It’s a trip around a peace-filled, inclusive world. On top of
all that, it is an adventure full of discovery and a monster 3-stage, 2-day, music party!
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MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
TF: The new tax regulations in the US for visiting artists have been challenging. Some groups
have postponed US tours in order to get a handle on the new realities, so we lost some we were
in discussions with this year. Visas are always a potential issue, particularly in the unfortunate
political climate we find ourselves in. Another challenge we sometimes run into that may be a bit
unique to us is routing issues. New Mexico is a bit off the beaten track and sometimes it results in
groups skipping us due to travel costs or logistics. The possible silver lining there is it has pushed
us to look at creative solutions and alternate routing scenarios, such as acts coming up through
México from the south, and that has yearly made our line up somewhat different than other
festivals in our time period.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
TF: First and foremost: funding. ¡Globalquerque! is a festival put on by a couple of guys. It is not
put on by a city or university or big institution that has a yearly budget, set funding and a staff
that are getting weekly paychecks. We rise or fall on our own. Each year we need to go out and
procure funding from different sources to make the festival happen. It is truly a labor of
love!Secondly, it is attracting new audience. The thing we hear over and over again from first time
¡Globalquerque! attendees is “I had no idea this festival was THIS!” It is a challenge to explain the
scope of the festival on paper as it is such an experiential event. Once people experience it
though, they are hooked. It’s moving the fence-sitters off the fence that we work hard at trying to
accomplish.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
TF: It’s our Quinceañera! And ¡Globalquerque! is all about culture, identity, inclusion, diversity,
discovery, building bridges, crossing borders, tearing down walls – and kicking up dust and
howling at the harvest moon to some of the best music on the planet as the smell of lavender
and roasting green chiles float on the New Mexico desert air.
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
[email protected] | +34 676302882
Pictures’ credits:
• Tom’s portrait from his Facebook profile
• Banner at the festival’s website
• Former cover photo of the Festival’s Facebook page
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
www.mapamundimusica.com
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https://www.facebook.com/musicaenelparquelaspalmasgc/
Música en el Parque holds one concert per month, on Sunday at noon, it is family-oriented, open
air in a park with magnificant vegetation in an island 1500 kms far from its Spanish mainland: Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria. Braulio Pérez, from Amilkilómetros, is its director and creator. I am
happy for sharing with you the insights of this brave colleague. Check the details at the website.
MM – What do you search in an artist when
you create the programme?
BP: In the case of Music in the Park we look
for several things that seem basic to us. On
one side, we want to offer to the public the
different ways of approaching the music that
each culture has, so it is important that the
musical proposal is close to these cultural
sources of their countries or regions of
origin.We also take into account that our
concerts are held on Sundays at noon, and
that normally the audience wants to have
fun and spend a joyful morning, with the
mood that defines the Canaries. That is why
we are looking for proposals according to
this, that are cheerful.And finally, and most importantly, within our possibilities, we look for
artists of great musical quality, of proposals that make the audience leave the concert with the
desire to continue consuming this musical style, the World Music.
MM – Which are the global objectives of
your festival?
BP: We pursue two main objectives:
Bringing proposals of World Music to the
Canarian public that can hardly be seen on
the islands.
To make them understand that this style
brings them different ways of seeing music,
of feeling it and of playing it, always imbuid
in the roots of each culture.
Our concerts are held on Sunday mornings.
With this, we seek a family audience, to be
able to show music to the children that
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provide them some experience and make them discover other cultures, other countries.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
BP: Maybe the connections for the flights. We live in a wonderful and privileged place, but far
from Europe. This implies an important cost in fights and forces us to have artists who are
touring the continent at that time. This, in some months of the year, since we schedule a concert
every month, makes it difficult to find proposals that fit date and style.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
BP: I guess sustainability. We are talking about an event that offers unknown artists to the public
of the islands. Artists who could hardly come and get payed enough if they only depended on a
box office. Here you can´t by train or in a van while on tour. Here there are costs of tickets,
hotels and transfers that, added to the artists’ caches, would make it unfeasible for them to come
in a totally private festival.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
BP: An incredible island, the best climate in the world, an outdoor setting surrounded by
greenery and the best artists of the World Music. What more can you ask?
Thank you, Braulio!
Pictures’ credits:
• Braulio’s former portrait from his Facebook profile, with Omara Portuondo
• Flyer announcing the first concert.
• Cover photo of the Festival’s Facebook page
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https://www.facebook.com/TodoMundoWorldMusicFestival/
Bojan Djordjevic, together with Oliver Djordjevic, Marija Vitas and Svetlana Spajic are the board of
the World Music Association Serbia, whose work of dissemination is huge and of high quality.
Check their website.
Bojan is also journalist of Radio Belgrade 3, panelist of the World Music Charts Europe and the
artistic director of the Festival Todo Mundo, that takes place in Belgrade at the end of September
and beginning of October.
I must confess that I match greatly with Bojan’s taste. This year he booked the apple of my eyes,
Vigüela, and the last year, Monsieur Doumani. But, apart of this, in the last edition they have had
the great Hungarian band Babra, the Armenian-Turkish duo of Vardan Hovanissian and Emre
Gultekin, the band of Sephardic music Shira U’Tfila and others. Check the website of the festival.I
am pleased and thanksful for the opportunity of spreading the insights of this man that is a
benchmark of the world music community.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? BD: The easiest answer
would be: high quality, but this is what we all (hopefully) are searching for.
Most of the festival program is our personal “taste”, but we cannot bring todo mundo to Belgrade
at once. What I like is that artists are standing strong with the music they play, that one feels
dedication. Mostly we do not go for highly commercial groups, as we find that already on many
spots.
Even in the new world with all the media, there are things that has to be discovered and are
worthwhile to be discovered.
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On the other hand it is nice to know that the artists are with their feet on the ground and
understanding the reality in this part of Europe.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
BD: I think that there is great music
played in every corner of the world,
we just have to be curious and
discover it.
The festival name shows that as
well – therefore music from many
countries should be presented.
Of course we always wish to have
focus on some region, country,
instrument or style, and also to
present few local artists, but apart
from that we want to have not
more than one group from each
country. And, not to forget, sometimes is important to bring artists, who, beside the high quality
have also social impact – like Vardan Hovanissian & Emre Gultekin this year, or to bring here
artists from the countries that have not been presented here before, – I am sure less than 1% of
people knows anything about music from Cyprus, so presenting high quality act like Monsieur
Doumani was very important.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
BD: Living in Serbia means you always have to fight with financial issues. Culture and music has
been supported, but in the way, that every year one have to fight from the start and the results of
supporting decisions are known late April and that is why we had to move the festival for the
second half of the year.
The other issue is how to deliver our message to more people when the media are mostly going
for commercial music. Few years ago media situation was different. There were more options to
present this music on radio and TV programs and in the magazines, now most of them are much
more into the politics, reality and sports. So, we have to find new ways to reach the people, as
social media networks are not enough.
Combination of new and old approach seems like the solution at this moment.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
BD: Doing festival like this is great pleasure. On the other hand, as I said, there are so many great
bands that deserve to be presented here. But, we cannot have 20 concerts at the festival. Even 10
is bit too much. So, we have to keep our desires under the control
And, when we do not have as many concerts as we would love to, we have to be careful about
presentation of the local world music scene.
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There is lots of great music coming from Serbia nowadays, some new and young artists coming,
but also we have to present some of the great and well known names.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
BD: Festival is done with great love and enthusiasm and musicians felt that and are willin’ to stay
here longer. The other reason is contact with the audience – usually after the show the contact is
so friendly that audience and artists are going together for a glass of wine or beer and stay into
the discussion almost till the morning.
That means the atmosphere is great and you feel it from the start. Beside that we have two
concerts per evening, so anyone has time to search around Belgrade and discover some secret or
well known places in the friendly city.
On top of all that you can hear many great concerts at the festival where all artists are treated
equally – we do not have support group nor headliners.
Pictures’ credits:
• Bojan at the last edition of Festival Todo Mundo, courtesy of Marija Vitas.
• Cover picture of Todo Mundo at Facebook.
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http://sorifestival.com/
Park Jechun is the artistic director of the festival since
2014. He is also percussionist and he has a duo with his
wife, the pianist Miyeon. This interview was possible
thanks to other of the hearts of the festival, Ji-Young Han,
known by many people of our community of world music
around the world, as she is usually the one present in the
fairs and other professional meetings.
The festival combines perfectly in its program the
ancestral and unique Sori repertoire, performed by old
and by young artists, the new trends from Korean music
and a bunch of high quality international proposals,
including also activities for kids. Apart of hosting the
festival, Jeonju is the paradigm city about Korean traditional cooking. If you still don´t find
reasons enough to wish to visit the festival, Park will give you one more at the end of the
interview.
Thank you, Park and Ji-Young!
MM – What do you search in an artist when you
create the programme?
PJ: In externally way, we have set the subject
(the topic) of the year in order of drum, dance,
wind instrument, string instrument and vocal
music. It was wind instruments this year and
string instrument Snext year. It will be vocal
music in 2021, the 20th anniversary of the
festival. And, on the other side, we see the
“attitude” of an artist doing his/her art. It is very
important whether they are young musicians or
masters.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
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PJ: I’ve never thought of the word ‘global
goal’. Our goal is the happiness of artists
and audiences who participate in the
festival through a legacy given to us in the
areas leading to the world – Asia – Korea
– Jeonju. I am grateful for this cultural
environment.
MM – What are the most complicated or
difficult issues to deal with in your
festival?
PJ: It is difficult to distinguish between
tradition and modern, classic and
contemporary. Is it really tradition that is
being passed down from the past? Is
evolution novel? It is difficult to judge
such a thing.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
PJ: As we prepare for the big festival, there are growing concerns about the environment every
year. I tried to run an environment-friendly festival this year, but it was not easy. We will make
continuous efforts.
And with the changing tendency of leisure life and culture, I always think about what the role of
festival is in this era.
We consider the consideration and cultural heritage for the next generation a priority.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
PJ: If you want to see how the old customs of East Asia exist in modern society, come to the Sori
Festival!
Pictures’ credits:
• Logo of the festival at their Facebook
• Mr. Park playing, from the website of the festival
• Ms. Ji-Young Han and Mr. Park with Juan Antonio Vázquez (from Juan Antonio’s archive)
Mapamundi Música Your benchmark in Spain on world and traditional music
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Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check
our proposals at our website.
We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music
in Spanish language (on 46 stations in 17 countries). We produce the Transglobal World
Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead
also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.
Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by
email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.