This year the infamous Ethno Histria attracted around seventy crazy folk/ traditional musicians from around the globe! Ethno Histia mentors included Matija Solce (Slovenia), Maarja Nuut (Estonia), Fernando Stern (Chile), Stephan Steiner (Austria) and Stina Rosen (Sweden); for those unfamiliar with the concept, mentors at Ethno guide the musical meanderings rather than ‘teach’ in a traditional form of the word. The teaching is done primarily by the participants, who share their own musical knowledge in a mutual learning exchange with their Ethno peers.

The program was fresh with a lot of variety including theatre performances, street processions, shows around the region and of course an array of different workshops. Over the 8 days, participants got a taste of the traditional and contemporary folk music’s of Slovenia, Estonia, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, France, Argentina, Sweden, Chile, Hungary, Scotland, Slovakia, Czech, England and Germany… wow. There were vocal and percussion section through whole week - singers were fully occupied

Through out the camp participants had the chance to put there newly acquired repertoires into action with several outside concerts. The street procession followed by a bigger concert in Koper was very well received; the concert in Piran consisted of a medley of solos by participants, which was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to other participants their own works and not only their folk music. Concerts in the surrounding villages were warmly accepted by the local people, with other short concerts held in the prison of Koper, shopping centres and even in a caves. Ethno organiser Matija Solce believes “It is good to bring participants to places in which these kinds of things rarely happen, places like pensioners houses, schools, factories, the jungle, jails, you know…”

10 Ethno musicians from 6 different countries take their show on the road in Estonia, performing 4 concerts and 5 workshops, hosted by the Estonian Traditional Music Center in Viljandi.

Ethno Estonia concert at Viljandi Folk Music Festival 2008!

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Pics from Gooik, concert, dance evening…

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