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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




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

http://www.folkoveprazdniny.cz/en/




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.



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

https://rwmf.net/




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.


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.


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.

https://www.pirineos-sur.es/





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.


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




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.


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.


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.



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.



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.


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

https://www.facebook.com/surjahan2019/




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.




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.


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.


NR – Development of the cultural activities in Nanto region,

education of the local community, diffusion of the world

music in Japan.


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.


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.


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






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.


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.


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.



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,

https://www.poborinafolk.es/




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.




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.


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.


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”).


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

https://www.fordefestival.no/




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




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


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


BS – Modern forms of communication make it easier to overcome organizational and logistic

barriers. Differences in visas and tax regulations may be a problem.



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

https://ethnoport.pl/




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!


you program?

KD – Music that swings and moves people…

Music for all ears!


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.


KD – Meetings with friends, family and artists from all over the world.

https://www.urkult.se/




Concert at Urkult’s “Happy Train” with Vigüela, August 2016

Picture: one of Ken’s Facebook profile pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi5E8conINk




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!


you program?

MO – Artistic quality within « Worldmusic »,

passion, authencity and the capacity to

transmit his/her music to the public.


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.


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,…

https://www.5continents.ch/





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).


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.




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!


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

https://en.jarmarkjagiellonski.pl/




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.


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.



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




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.




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:


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

https://mmfestival.org/




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.


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.



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.





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.


• 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




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!



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.


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!





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.


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.


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.





• Tom’s portrait from his Facebook profile

• Banner at the festival’s website

• Former cover photo of the Festival’s Facebook page




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.



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

https://www.facebook.com/musicaenelparquelaspalmasgc/




provide them some experience and make them discover other cultures, other countries.


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.


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.


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!


• Braulio’s former portrait from his Facebook profile, with Omara Portuondo

• Flyer announcing the first concert.

• Cover photo of the Festival’s Facebook page




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.

https://www.facebook.com/TodoMundoWorldMusicFestival/




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.


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.


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.


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.




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.


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.


• Bojan at the last edition of Festival Todo Mundo, courtesy of Marija Vitas.

• Cover picture of Todo Mundo at Facebook.




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!


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.


http://sorifestival.com/




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.


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.


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.


PJ: If you want to see how the old customs of East Asia exist in modern society, come to the Sori

Festival!


• 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 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.

http://www.mapamundimusica.com/en/

http://www.mapamundimusica.com/

http://www.mundofonias.com/

http://www.transglobalwmc.com/

http://www.transglobalwmc.com/

http://www.asociaciondifusionestilos.com/

http://www.mapamundimusica.com/en/contacto/

https://www.facebook.com/mapamundimusica/

€¦ · Author: ï¿½ï¿½Araceli Sï¿½nchez Muï¿½oz Created Date: 12/7/2019 4:19:29 PM

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