Video overview of Group EVS in Kalamata

People come & go - let the creativity flow!

The year have passed so fast and already more than a week new volunteers have been able to wonder around lovely Kalamata!

We all say big warm HELLO to ALL of YOU!!


Welcome to Kalamata guys! We hope you will like here.

Sencerely,
Volunteers from last year

EVS year though volunteers eyes

Our volunteers have managed to capture their year in Kalamata to video. Here is what they say about it! It's a bit more artistic & we hope you will enjoy it!

Let us briefly explain what is this video-artistic conception all about... ! 
During EVS time all of us are feeling, living through various amount of emotions, situations, periods and so does the idea to create something abstractive enough & still easy to understand and free for interpretation appeared!
It is a stream through-out the EVS daily life with a main pressure point on how "myself" deals with new surrounding, challenges, difficulties, negative/positive aspects, small details, big standpoints, different values, various issues, etc ... !

We wish to thank all our EVS fellows we have met during this time, mentors, locals, our coordinators Fotini and Filaretos and there are many more who are worth the credit! THANK YOU!

So enjoy the video and we hope You will like it!!!

LiNK nr. 43 Epilogue of 7th Street Festival of Kalamata

STREET FESTIVAL - 3rd day - Theater Day

SUNDAY 28th July

The third day of the festival was devoted to miscellaneous kinds of performances ranging from 

pantomime and stilt walking to aerial dance. As during the previous days visitors could again watch tricks performed by young skates, get on a climbing wall, explore photography exhibition and stands with hand-made jewelery, find some pretty garments at gift bazaar or buy refreshments in the bar.

Apart from all those attractions, on Sunday you could admire additionally posters sent to KANE by various organizations dealing with problems of discrimination, racism, homophobia or women abuse.

The organizers of Street Festival place much importance on diversity, that is the reason why we could see also kinds of art, that are not usually connected with street art. Artists read randomly chosen poems of writers from Kalamata and Nobel Prize winner Giorgos Seferis whose lyric expresses a deep feeling of Hellenic culture. Listening to those verses one could notice that poetry is simple and understandable for everybody.

The exact main stage program was not known until last minutes before the start. The program started with dance show prepared by an international group of EVS volunteers. They were skillfully changing from one style to another: swing, salsa and tango. Several other dance groups prepared amusing shows: salsa group, Fame Dance Academy, Just Dance. We could hear as well soft voices of the Choir of the Youth Center and watch Jimmy who performed popping - a special kind of street dance.

Street Festival hosted several clowns and circus groups especially attractive for children, and a juggling show.

The most interesting point of the night was show prepared by participants of the Youth Exchange “Peace, Love & Unity”. The show began at staircase with youngsters singing such hits as “We will rock you” and “Samba de Janeiro”. Then accompanied by special light effects which created a sense of mystery there was a dance telling a story of a princess and warriors. Following stilt walking man who was spreading money we reached next point. Three girls presented breath-taking acrobatics on trapeze and one man was dancing on a rope. Silk climbing was also impressive and caused shivers to go through my body while watching it. Subsequently we came back to the main stage, where we observed several dance shows including French-Portuguese break dancing group – although they met only a week ago, they were dancing as if they known each other for years. In the background there were constantly people with slogans encouraging fight with racism and discrimination – this year’s topic of the festival.

It’s impossible not to mention astounding fire show featuring Polish ethnic electronica music. Light circles were rhythmically moving in the air and stimulating imagination of the viewers.

The festival turned out to be - not surprisingly - a huge success. Thousands of people from Kalamata and surroundings were crouching on the hill slopes in the park and enjoying the cheerful atmosphere of the event. Street festival is definitely getting better and better from year to year!

STREET FESTIVAL - 2nd day - Hip-Hop Day

SATURDAY 28th July

Second day of the Street Festival was connected with this what comes to our mind, when we think about street art. Hip hop? Graffiti? Skating? Yes! But also much much more.

During  the “Hip Hop Day” which took place on Saturday, 27th of July, almost 3000 people visited park and enjoyed positive and artistic atmosphere created by volunteers and artists from Greece and different parts of the world.  Everything started like every day on central part of park, specially prepared for skates and BMX.  Youngsters from Kalamata could use it and present their skills in skating. At 6 p.m. graffiti artist from city and guests from France started prepare its pieces of arts. Viewers could observe whole process of creating graffiti in more than 10 spots in different parts of the railway park.

As Street Festival is not a commercial festival, but is created by active citizens, very important part of it have been social projects. One of them was an art installation, final result of project “Step”. Through an open call immigrants from all over the world - regardless of age or sex - wrote down their thoughts and ideas connected with word “step”. These were collected and “dressed” the tent which was used after the earthquake in Kalamata. It stood  as a symbol of safety and protection. Viewers could visit this tent and as well as express their thoughts and  then sew them with red string to the tent.

Another important action was project “RE:Think”. This artistic and social project aims at raising awareness for the city of Kalamata. A part of this initiative is to create improvised composters in home and neighborhood and thanks to the effort of the network in the county composting in the Municipality of Kalamata, which already operates a pilot phase. Part of the project are also workshops, in which authors learn how to use recycled materials for various aims. During the festival, in wagon which belongs to the project’s authors, there was an exhibition of everyday things  created during workshops made with cans, wood, paper, plastic and even pasta. Authors of the project were open to talk about their job and mission. They claimed that they participate in Street Festival, because on one hand they want to promote their activity, on the other, they want to take part in the event, which gives the local community a possibility to gather and use their social space in creative and active way.

Second day of course could not exist without music and dance. And because of that, on the festival stage we could see and hear local and international MCs like Eisovelas from Athens and Kazdall from France and participants of Youth Exhange “Love, Peace and Unity” Zakari also from France. Portugal and French participants of YE and local dancers gave a great break dance show.

Hip hop day, was just like this music genre, full of energy. Concerts gathered a lot of people and it was really nice to watch a crowd around the stage. There was a great music  and a lot of fun. What is more there was a place for active social project. And it is one of the reasons why Street Festival is itself a fantastic social project as well.

STREET FESTIVAL - 1st day - Rock Day

FRIDAY 28th July

After a lot of preparations it was finally time for the Street Festival. All the volunteers were very excited and also the visitors were enthusiastic. The railway park turned into a festival area where you could enjoy music, acts, bazaars, … . Happy people were wondering around everywhere to see what was going on. The first day was immediately a big success and it was like that all the days of the festival.

Young or old, into music or not, people just passing by, … everybody definitely  found something they liked. The festival is very accessible, so you could see different types of people, which made it interesting to just observe everybody.

In the gift bazaar you could find free clothes (women, man and children), there were a lot of clothes and most of the people who stopped by also found something. There were retro clothes, clothes for theme parties, sportive clothes, city clothing, casual clothes, nightwear, … . I’m sure we made a lot of people happy with their new wardrobe, some of them even put on their new conquests right away.

In the bar everybody was working hard to make sure the visitors didn’t have to wait too long for their drinks and arms were sacrificed to keep the drinks cold in a large tub filled with ice cubes, after a few hours of taking cans out of the tub it was hard to feel the difference between warm and cold. But no festival without drinks of course.

In the skatepark everybody could show their tricks and moves to the others. Young and old visitors brought their skeelers, skateboards and bmx’es to show the others what they could do. We saw a lot of impressing things.  Next to the skatepark there was a climbing wall for children. The red cross stayed around just in case something would happen, luckily nobody got seriously injured.

On the stage rock-bands were blowing away the audience with their great music. You could hear the music on all the other spots in the festival-area, so you could for example try on some clothes while listening to the music. A lot of people also gathered in front of the stage to be sure not to miss anything from the concert.

The first day set the trend for the rest of the days, after this successful day everybody was tired but happy and ready for the other days to come.