Ethno Estonia concert at Viljandi Folk Music Festival 2008!

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Pics from Gooik, concert, dance evening…

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Live recording from the concert of Ethno Croatia 2008 that took place in the medieval town of Groznjan, Croatia…

One more Ethno Croatia workshop is over. It was held in medieval town of Groznjan, the meeting point of Mediterranean & Central Europe.

This year, they were paticipants from Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Macedonia with Dario Marusic from Istria, Croatia and Allan Skrobe from Sweden as mentors.

We had the pleasure that among the participants they were two bands: Radio Kairo from Sweden and Afion from Croatia.

In Groznjan we had several days to learn the tunes and practice them. The real real challenge three days after the beginning of the workshops: the concert in Bale, a small Istrian city. The audience was great! And we met some participants from Ethno Sweden! Ethno lovers everywhere

After five days in Groznjan, it was time to move on. Last night in Groznjan we had a farawell concert to say godbye and thank you to the city and all the nice people there.

We moved to the sea, to the city of Pula. It was very hot these days, so Pula came as a nice refreshment. We jumped into the sea and took the opportunity to take a swim or two or three…:)

The last concert was in the continental part of Croatia, in an medieval castle Veliki Tabor close to Zagreb. We were the guests of the Tabor Film Festival, an international short movie film festival. And that was it! Seven days of music, fun and traveling…and making friendships…

In the week when the Union for the Mediterranean has been launched by the French presidency, the national section of Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) in Cyprus reasserts the crucial role that culture, and especially music, can play in developing positive intercultural values, attitudes and behaviours amongst young people of all Mediterranean countries.

Together with five EU and Mediterranean partners, JM Cyprus is organizing Ethno Cyprus 2008 (11-19 July 2008), funded by the “Youth Euromed” program of the European Commission and the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture. Thereby, Ethno Cyprus is contributing to better mutual understanding between musical youth in the EuroMed sub-region, bringing together about 40 musicians from five countries. Such steps are not only innovative approaches to the peace building process but also serve to improve youth and cultural policy development in the region and thereby strengthen new initiatives such as the Union for the Mediterranean.

Nenad Bogdanovic, president of JM Cyprus, argues that infrastructure for youth music projects is currently under developed in the Mediterranean region: “We hope soon to establish better equipped facilities that will enable young musicians and young audiences to communicate through music on a more permanent and stable basis. The Euromed Youth Music Centre, here in Limassol, would not be only a meeting point, but also a live platform uniting Europe and the Middle East.”

Ethno Cyprus 2008 will finish with two concerts, 17 July in Nicosia and 18 July in Limassol. The concert in Limassol will be dedicated to the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean, establishing a milestone for further co-operation between the Mediterranean countries.