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| May 2011 News |
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Here is the provisional
programme for this year's Africa Day events in Cork City:
FRIDAY 27th MAY - Opening
Ceremony Cork City Library 1.30 pm
Raj Padam & Unity Drums will be there as
always along with the ARK volunteer group from Kinsale Road Asylum
centre. This year we hope to take this ceremony outside the library
and onto grand parade (weather permitting) If it looks like rain on
the day we'll move inside the library and use the library foyer.
This year Patricia Gosch TD has kindly
agreed to provide the opening speech.
FRIDAY 27th MAY -
Conference Lord Mayor's Chambers, City Hall. 2 - 5pm
THE AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
With speakers TBC
SAT/SUN 28th & 29th MAY - Fota
Wildlife Park Cork 12 - 4.00 pm
Drum Workshops with Unity Drums
(For people of
all ages)
Plus Children's arts & crafts and
facepainting with the Animal Antics crew
SUNDAY 29th MAY - The Pavilion
Cork (downstairs) 2pm - 11.00 pm
Music from:
2 pm
The Lace. Ireland's first ever African
band
Guest acts & DJs
African Clothes boutique with Salim
Arts & Sculpture exhibition from
Blessing Sangyana (from Zimbabwe) Blessing also runs Sculpture
workshops at Sample Studios, The Old FAS building O'Sullivans Quay.
Updated schedule will be sent by email
later this week and posted on the website
If there are any musicians out there who
would like to give a short performance at The Pavilion on the 29th
May in the afternoon/evening please get in touch as soon as possible
so we can finalise our schedule. And if any of you would like to
contribute something towards this years Africa Day events in Cork
City please reply to this mail.
FESTIVAL OF AFRICA CORK 2011
We are still awaiting the decision to our
funding application from Irish Aid in preparation for the 2011 Festival
of Africa in Cork City, so I am not able to confirm the programme as
yet. I do know, however, that we are facing massive cuts to our previous
budget and that instead of the usual events happening all over the
country, this year there will only be four, in Cork, Dublin, Galway and
Limerick, and this year we are all subject to the same budget ceiling.
We have reserved the dates of 27th - 29th of May for
this years series of events. To maintain the quality of our festival
I feel that we may have to charge an entry fee to one or two of these
events (unless a suitable commercial sponsor steps up!) we will however
try to keep any entry fees to the bare minimum and just to cover the
costs.
Some events that we are hoping to stage at
this years festival (subject to our funding allocation & confirmation)
include:
FEILE AFRICA WEBSITE
We recently discovered that our web publishing software was 'out of
date' and no longer supported by our web hosters, we are now getting
to grips with some new software (which was a bit like stepping out
of a trusty old Morris Minor and stepping into the cockpit of a
jumbo jet!) so apologies if some of the info on our site is a bit
dated, we'll be trying to get it 'up-to-speed' over the next few
weeks.
MOSE FANFAN COMES TO CORK TO FINISH NEW ALBUM
Veteran Congolese guitarist Mose Fanfan
has asked us to arrange for some Cork based assistance to help him
put the finishing touches to his latest album to be released in the
next few months. As a world renowned African musician I feel this is
a great honour and a sign of Cork's level of cultural diversity, and
pool of diverse musical talent, that such a musician should choose
Cork as his city of choice for this task. Mose Fanfan last visited
us in 2004 when he facilitated a week long masterclass of Congolese
Rumba at The Triskel Arts centre, so he was already aware of what
musicianship was available. I'll make sure we get a shout on the
album cover!
FESTIVAL OF WORLD CULTURES DUN LAOGHAIRE: We were informed late last year that the 2011 festival was cancelled, for a number of reasons, by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council. This will be a huge disappointment to fans and musicians alike and will, no doubt, leave a massive vacuum in Ireland for 'World Music' styles and international food, dance and everything else that went on there. We have been lucky enough to be involved, in one way or another, for about 8 years. If you would like to sign an online petition to save the festival click here There was a chance that Ireland was about to get another 'World Music' festival when 'THE INDIE'GO WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL' in Carlow opened on 6th August (with camping and all sorts of workshops & sideshows) only to implode the following lunchtime due to shortfalls in ticket sales. Any communications sent to Indie'Go get redirected to their solicitors. If you don't mind travelling to Wales for some 'World Music Festival' action you could try the Small Nations Festival in Cilycwm which runs from 8 - 10th July and will feature some old friends Mose Fanfan with his veteran Somo Somo band, Kerekes and our Cork friends Raj & Tonynho's Bangsambra. This festival takes place at Glangwenlais Farm, half a mile from Cilycwm/Llandovery, in mid Wales and has been going since 2002. |