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Catalan Culture 2004 Class Blog

viernes, diciembre 05, 2003

Asssingment 3 Nilo Rahmani

cultural event Festival Asia

I have been to several cultural events here in Barcelona, from little concerts to la merce. But the only place I really enjoyed and felt one with the atmosphere was on a festival called Festival Asia, held on 10th, 11th and 12th of October 2003. the festival was held in Barcelona Mercat de las Flors, the Institut de Teatre and the Teatre Lliure. Festival Asia is the result of Casa Asia's desire to create a popular cultural event that promotes understanding between European and Oriental peoples.
Festival Asia addresses this issue by bringing to the public the arts and customs of Asia and Asia Pacific, in a three-day event that highlights the similarities and differences not only between Europe and Asia but also between different Asian countries. This allows us to create contextual opinions about individual nations rather than seeing Asia-Pacific as stereotyped mass.
I loved to be there among Asians an Europeans who were bedazzled and admired by the performed art, alongside I noticed that people were really discussing to each other the similarities and differences. I felt glad that such festivals are held, this way people can form a better opinion about the different Asian cultures. The contents of the festival were both traditional and modern, and included live music, dance, cinema, theatre, games, gastronomy, martial arts, performance, installations and so much more. I enjoyed the Indian kathak dance in mercat de les flores. It is more like or storytellers theatre/ dance. The speciality of these dance are men, who used to tell their tales in local town squares, were mythological fables and moral tales for the times, which they used to tell accompanied by hand and facial gestures. It was theatre at its most pure, and they also used vocal or instrumental music to engage their public.
The second thing I liked was the Asian dinner outside in the garden of mercat de les flores. I filled my plate with one dish from each country, it was delicious.
Last but not least, my best experience in the festival was the Bhangra Night, a music performance of an Uk Indian band called ¨ The Panjabi Hit Squad ¨. The Panjabi Hit Squad are at the forefront of Asian fusion in Great Britain, mixing Bhangra and Bollywood rhythms with Hip Hop, drum & base, Dancehall and UK Garage, reinforcing their act with MCs and Indian percussionists. They were accompanied by Dhol Entertainment, the fabulous Ms Scandalous and DJ Climax. I knew the band slightly from two singles but, being there was above all expectations, the music was great. It was exact my taste, experiencing that in Barcelona felt really special, so I danced the whole night. The atmosphere was tremendous. I was expecting more Asian audience but it turn out that there were more Spanish audience dancing to the Bhangra beats, which was good to see. In my eyes the organisations had already achieved there aims!!! This is what I call a useful cultural event! It was an unforgettable opportunity to participate in an experience which was quite unique!!

P.s including the after party with just the members of the band in jamboree and mare magnum!

Greetings to each and every reader!!;-)



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