Balkanik Festival – Home of World Music, event recognized for its unique atmosphere, the unique artists that the public has the opportunity to discover, the inclusive spirit and the character of a cultural melting pot for the communities of Bucharest and for foreigners who travel to the capital of Romania to participate in the event, returns between September 6 and 8 the Uranus Garden, for the th 11th edition.
The artists who will take the stage of the festival, at the beginning of autumn, are CIOCARLIA BRANCH (Romania), SHANTEL & BUCOVINA CLUB SOUND SYSTEM (Germania), FATHER ZULA (Turkey), INDICATED (Poland), PHURIPE (ex-Ternipe, Hungary), MEDZ BAZAR COLLECTIVE (Armenia-France), AUCTION L’EST (Belgium), MĐĐLINA PAVĂL ORCHESTRA (Romania), RUMELIKO (Greece-Romania).
CIOCARLIA BRANCH (Romania) – the story of the legendary band Fanfara Ciocărlia, made up of 12 fiddlers of Roma origin, began more than 25 years ago in the village of Zece Prăjini, in the north-east of Romania. Over time they collaborated, among others, with Eugene Hütz – Gogol Bordello (USA), Bassement Jaxx (UK), Transglobal Underground (UK), Boban & Marko Markovic (Serbia), Esma Redzepova (Macedonia) and Dunkelbunt (Austria ) and received numerous awards: Top of the World Music Charts Europe for 7 of the albums released between 1999 and 2021, Best Worldmusic Album for “Iag Bari” but also the BBC Radio 3 award for Best World Music Act from Europe.
SHANTEL & BUCOVINA CLUB SOUNDSYSTEM (Germania)
With his international mega-hit Disko Partizani, Shantel has become the sonic image of a new music culture worldwide and is the first musician to give today’s pop culture a cosmopolitan sound thanks to her multicultural roots. With a rich genetic heritage spanning multiple regions, Shantel’s music embodies the blend of migration and dance. Shantel became interested in Eastern European music when she undertook a trip to Bucovina in search of her family roots, which led to the creation of the Bucovina Club event series and her albums. Shantel’s music transcends geographical and cultural boundaries and albums like ‘Disko Partizani’ and ‘Istanbul’ represent a statement against societal norms, aiming to break down barriers and celebrate the diverse musical landscape of our globalized world.
FATHER ZULA (Turkey) brings back to Balkanik Festival the “space sound of Istanbul”, in other words, an Oriental dub or an energetic and unheard psychedelic rock’n’roll, which managed to invent time and space travel, teleporting its listeners to the shores of the old Bosphorus. Zula first achieved success thanks to the soundtrack of the documentary made by Alexander Hacke, Crossing The Bridge – Sounds of Istanbul and from that moment the group earned an important place in the contemporary Turkish music scene. Their music is born from tradition, but remains open to the dynamism of the metropolis.
MEDZ BAZAR COLLECTIVE (Armenia-France)
The band Collectif Medz Bazar was founded in 2012 in Paris, by the meeting of eight musicians, who sing and perform original arrangements of traditional music from Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Balkans and other regions. In their stage performances, Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and Persian musical traditions meet with explosive rhythms and pop elements, bringing together Middle Eastern percussion and Parisian voices of various origins (Armenian, Turkish and Franco-American), inspired by the folk music of Asia Minor or Iran, as much as the Caucasian rabiz, the rhythms of Thrace, with accents of Venezuelan music, operetta, hip-hop, jazz and bluegrass.
INDICATED (Poland)
DIKANDA is an internationally renowned band that has been playing “world music” since 1997 and hails from Szczecin, Poland. In their artistic activity, DIKANDA promotes the authenticity of the style – looking for new trends, so that most of the works are original compositions and the musicians find their inspiration in the traditional sounds of the broadly defined oriental folklore – from the Balkans, through Israel, Kurdistan, Belarus to India. Their works are dominated by Balkan and Roma influences. They performed hundreds of concerts and won numerous awards – among others, in 2005 their album “Ushtijo” received the “Disc of the Year” award from the German magazine “Folker”. What sets DIKANDA apart is the creation of new words in their lyrics, thus forming their authentic language – “dikandish”.
AUCTION L’EST (Belgium)
Combining the emotion of Balkan and klezmer tunes with the power of rock and metal, KermesZ in the East is a unique marching band with an infectious zest for life. This neo-post-punk marching band turns the audience into a sea of dancers and their unique repertoire is complemented by their hilarious stage interactions, inspired by freak shows and cabinets of curiosities, to create a show full of dance and energy.
MĐĐLINA PAVĂL ORCHESTRA (Romania)
Mădălina Pavăl is a multidisciplinary artist who expresses her creativity through music and various artistic projects. Together with Alexei Țurcan, a talented producer and composer, they created Mădălina Pavăl Orchestra, a unique band that combines traditional Romanian sounds with modern elements. The orchestra focuses on exploring and reinventing classical musical textures, using instruments such as string quintet, harp and flute, along with the dance rhythms and tribal force of alternative music. The result is a vibrant fusion, which some may call world music, but for Mădălina and Alexei, it is an experience that evokes the cultural and geographical roots of Romania – Bucovina, Moldavia, South Danube and Balkan.
RUMELIKO (Greece-Romania)
Ruméliko combines Greek and Turkish folklore, urban rebetiko and Balkan rhythms to breathe new life into old songs about passion, longing, pain and joy. Valasia Dodulu’s soulful voice together with the ensemble’s oriental and western instrumentation transports the listener on a sonic journey to the origins of Ottoman Rumelia, a region that once stretched from Greece to Romania.
PHURIPE (ex-Ternipe, Hungary)
Phuripe (in Romanian – old age) is a band whose leader, Lakatos Béla, after disbanding the famous band Ternipe (in Romanian – youth) in 2014, founded a new musical group. Their repertoire includes traditional Roma songs, but they also don’t leave out Ternipe’s hits, such as the famous Muro Shavo. It is important for the band to preserve the authentic music of the Roma, both vocal and instrumental, in a modern and accelerated world, to gather it together and process it, so that it becomes known to a wider audience.
Uranus Garden, which houses the famous water tower designed by Anghel Saligny, one of the most beautiful historical monuments in Bucharest, is one of the few spaces that survived from the old Uranus district, demolished during the communist dictatorship, for the construction of the House of the People. Balkanik Festival returned home in 2022, in this large garden in the center of Bucharest, a magical space that hosted the first 6 editions of the festival. In addition to the concerts, the atmosphere will be completed by a craft fair, exhibitions, debates, international cuisines with traditional and reinterpreted dishes, activities for children, scenographies at the intersection of East and West, urban and rural.
Balkanik Festival is an event that has aimed, since the first edition, to bring communities together, promote inclusion, understanding and acceptance of other cultures, through music and other arts.
Early bird subscriptions for Balkanik Festival are available at the price of 170 lei, and can be purchased from the Iabilet, Entertix, Bilete.ro, Livetickets and Eventbook networks. Children up to the age of 9 enjoy free entry to the festival, accompanied by an adult.
In the foreground on the XI edition poster is his photo Renee Pearlthe Romanian born in Iasi, who arrived in Paris a hundred years ago, where she met the famous photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue (photo author). She became the first professional photo model in the history of mankind, the artist immortalizing her in 341 images in just two years! She was praised by the great John Galliano, and her portraits ended up being auctioned at Sothebyʼs. Her Parisian friends included stars like Roland Garros, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. (from “Romanians and Romanians who changed the world”, author Dan-Silviu Boerescu).
Balkanik Festival – Home of World Music #11 is organized by Metropolis Cultural Association, fueled by OSCAR Downstream; project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund*; Balkanik Festival is a project co-financed by Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB within the “Bucharest 565. Urban Connections” 2024 Program.**; sponsored by BRD Groupe Société Générale, Pop Cola, with the support of the Union of Armenians in Romania, of the Armenian Cultural Center in Bucharest, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, with the support of the French Institute in Romania.
Media partners: Radio Guerrilla, Pro TV, Cărturești, Aici a stat, Happ, Haute Culture, Infomusic, IQads, Nine O’Clock, Observator Cultural, Revista Golan, spotmedia.ro, Traîește muzica, Utopia Balkanică, Ziarul Metropolis, Zile and Nights.
*”The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.”
**”The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of Bucharest City Hall or ARCUB.
Source: www.iqads.ro
