Tuesday, August 6, 2013

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!

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