One more festival in Hanioti is behind us...It was great one...again :) Makfolk Association and Talija Art Co would like to send warm greetings to all the participants that made this festival unforgettable. For them,for us and for people of Hanioti. 560 children from Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldavia, Russia proved once again that dancing and singing is what can make world a better place.
During the festival every ensemble has at least two shows- the main one in Hanioti and the other in one of the places of Municipality of Pallini. The shows are organized in the evening hours with a short defile at the start.
As you can see from video above also residents of Hanioti enjoyed and cheered folklore festival too. We can say that city breathed with the festival. Weather was also nice so most of the children were on the beach at free time...some of them also visited Thessaloniki, historical place Meteori or boat tour through Aegean see.
Festival was closed with great gala ceremony where all the ensembles get certificate for participation and also gifts were exchanged by ensembles and major of the city Hanioti.
You can see more pictures and videos at our FaceBook page.
At the end we can say that in September we will have jubilant XX Festival and there are already more then 800 participants signed in for the festival...so it will be greatest one for sure.
This time Ohrid was the central place of this festival, fulfilled with great moments. As usual we had groups from all around the world participating all of them with different cultures and different stories which were presented by them. All the groups from Belgium, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland, Montenegro and Croatia had their performances on the main stage in Ohrid leaving great impression on the big audience which was fascinated by the folklore dances.
Makfolk and Talija also organized a sightseeing of this ancient town for all the participants of the festival, bringing them closer to Macedonian history and culture. Suddenly the last day of the festival was here. Days full with joy, dancing and friendship make us forget how time easily passes.
One more time we had a great festival with great people making it more exciting with their presence. The Ohrid Wave Festival left us as quickly as it came – but the experiences, the wonderful memories and the friendships – those will be enough to carry with us and repeat this event with the same and new groups from all around the world.
Greetings from Macedonia and MakFolk Team. See you next year.
p.s Visit our facebook page and press "Like" button to be updated with photos and videos from festival.
With Euro 2012 set to kick off, MakFolk wants to know who you think will win tournament which will be held in Poland and Ukraine. The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July 2012.
Just like festivalsorganized by MakFolk Association , EURO 2012 is promoter and presenter of various and different cultures and colors of European nations. We would like to make parallel and show unique of jerseys design as thay had remained similar as a national identity.
The sixteen finalists who will participate in the final tournament are:
P O L A N D
U K R A I N E
C R O A T I A
C Z E C H Rep.
D E N M A R K
E N G L A N D
F R A N C E
G E R M A N Y
G R E E C E
R E P. o f I R E L A N D
I T A L Y
H O L L A N D
P O R T U G A L
R U S S I A
S P A I N
S W E D E N
Spain and Germany enter the competition as the co-favourites, Netherlands appears to be strong contender, and France is being touted as the dark horse.
And despite their recent troubles, England and Italy can't be discounted.
So which nation do you think is going to win it all?
Have your say by posting your comments below and voting in the poll at our facebook page.
p.s Feel free to share this post with your friends
Everybody know for MATRYOSHKA, a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other.
But what did you know about Buranovskiye Babushki before Eurovision Song Contest 2012 ?!?
Matryoshka dolls
According to Wikipedia , Buranovskiye Babushkiis band consists of eight "grandmothers", but only six were allowed to appear on the Eurovision stage due to contest rules. They are from the village of Buranovo, Udmurtia, halfway between the Volga and the Urals in Russia. The band performs most of their songs in the Udmurt language.
Matryoshka dolls in real-life
The Grannies [Babushki stands for grannies in Russian] is consists of eight grandmothers, eldest member of the group is 76 years old, 77 in the autumn. According to the BBC, the Buranovskiye Babushki have had success in the past with Udmurtian-language covers of Western hits such as Yesterday by the Beatles, or the Eagles' Hotel California. In 2010, they came close to winning the Eurovision nomination with their song "Long, long birch bark and how to make a hat of it." But in 2012 they succeeded.
Their song, reportedly penned by the grannies themselves, is called "Party for Everybody."
It begins folkily enough, in their native language of Udmurtian, before breaking into a Eurodisco-style chorus with the lyrics, in English: "Come on and dance, / Come on and dance, / Come on and dance, / Come on and boom boom." It's weirdly hypnotic by the 12th time round. Oh, and at one point it features a sort of spoken rap freestyle.
They're no wannabe starlets, though. The group's aim is to raise enough money from their performances to build a new church in Buranovo.
But this is not the end of the story for Babushki...they were "robbed" just before their performance.
German journalists had asked the grandmothers about their national costumes and asked them to show their stage shoes. The grandmas took the shoes out of the bag, but, before the Germans could look at them, the elderly women were asked to sit in the sit in the bus, forgetting about the shoes. The Germans, on the other hand, thought the grandmothers had given the shoes to them as a gift. Learning about the loss of the Russian grandmas’ stage shoes, however, the Germans returned them.
But the grandmas decided not to be rude to the Germans, since one of their husband had made reserve shoes for the grandmothers.
They are enjoyable and if you meet them in meantime...feel free to ask Babushki to be part at some of the festivals organized by Makfolk Association for 2012. If they are booked for 2012...try for 2013 :)
Another great story… Another great festival organized by Makfolk Association is behind us. It was five beautiful days for us full with dancing, socializing, meeting new people and most important of all, having fun. In Hanioti we meet folk groups from all around the world like Ukraine, Venezuela, Russia, Moldova, Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey. They have their own performances almost every day dancing and presenting the folk culture of their countries.
In these five days we have time to go on beach, take a swim and enjoy in the beautiful sea. Actually at this part of the year Greece is so beautiful with all the colorfulness of nature.
Aegean see view from Hanioti
Final day of the festival was the most interesting; we have the final concert in Hanioti and it was great. All the groups have their final performance, but at the end we was surprised when all the audience, including Makfolk Team, came down on the stage and dance together on traditional Greek music ☺
Spontaneous finish of the festival :)
In the end of the day, all group leaders have dinner together, sharing impressions of the festival and receiving certificates for their participation on this festival. Finally we take some photos together, to remember this beautiful five days, share our contacts and scheduled a meeting next year.
We are sending greetings and appreciations to all the participants, people and municipality of Hanioti and Talija Art Co. for great festival it was. Hope to meet you again at festival in Hanioti which will be held in September 25 – 30, 2012. For more info about the festival in September you can get more information at our web site www.makfolk.com.mk
According to news coming from Japan by Japan Times new classes were set in motion by the government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, dancing become a compulsory subject for junior high school students this month.
Dancing will not only allow students to exercise more fully by using their entire bodies, it will also encourage communication among those dancing in groups — when they will supposedly learn how to express themselves and teach classmates how to bust a move. Schools have been given three options: folk dance, creative dance and "dance with modern rhythm," which includes hip-hop.
But for gym teachers, most of whom never learned how to teach dance, let alone dance themselves, the change is a major headache. Why ? At firstly Junior high schools must devote 105 hours of class time to physical education each year. Do gym teachers know how to teach dancing? Not really. Many of them, especially the men, appear to be struggling because this role has usually been the domain of women. The men usually teach martial arts.
"We want teachers and students to learn how fun dancing can be," said Kenichi Yoshida, a spokesman for the association.As examples, the ministry suggests dances performed at the famous "Gujo Odori" summer festival in Gifu Prefecture, dating from the 18th century, and the Bon festival dances that accompany "Tanko Bushi," a song about coal mining in Mitsui, Fukuoka Prefecture. The Czech Republic's Doudlebska Polka and America's Oklahoma Mixer also come highly recommended.
Makfolk Association is optimistic about this. We have seen already Japanese singing and dancing Macedonian dance and music so...with Japanese devotion and hard work everything is possible.
We are cursorily waiting for first videos of Japanese dancing Polka :)
Folk dancing is a chance to meet new people and socialize. It offers insight into other cultures. And it’s good exercise, as folk dances range from walking pace to extremely vigorous moves.
Folk dance literally means dance of the people. The dances come with stories about cultures and lifestyles from around the globe. Some steps mimic work, as when dancers move their arms as if harvesting a crop. Another example: When dancers tread the floor lightly, they represent the belief that people don’t own the land they live on.
Click here to get List of ethnic, regional, and folk dances by origin.
Makfolk Association in its noble cultural mission, to keep and develop national cultures will organize several festivals of folk dance and music. Makfolk Association has a great pleasure to announce festivals for 2012:
1. International Folk dance festival “HANIOTI 2011” (May) –Hanioti, Greece 15-20 May 2. International Veteran FolkDance Festival “Ohrid Waves”–Ohrid, Macedonia 14-17 June 3. International Folk Festival “Mare Adriatiko” –Lido Di Jesolo, Italy 17-22 June 4. International Folk Dance Festival “ALEGRIA” –Callela, Spain 23-30 June 5. International Folk dance festival “VARNA 2011” –Varna, Bulgaria 30 June-05 July 6. International Folk –Dance Festival “Ohrid Waves” –Ohrid, Macedonia 26-30 July 7. International Folk dance festival “HANIOTI 2011” (September) –Hanioti, Greece 25-30 September
Feel free to contact us email : makfolk @gmail.com for more info about the festivals.
"We build bridges from nation to nation, from man to man" by Makfolk Association Team.
Makfolk & Talija Team would like to invite you to join the folk groups from Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Moldova, N.Cyprus, Hungary...and be part of our festival.
APPLICATION PROCESS FOR VIII INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL "OHRID WAVES"- Ohrid, Macedonia 26 - 30 JULY 2012 IS CLOSING....
Gala Concert at Ohrid Square near St.Cyril and Metodius sculpture
HURRY UP AND APPLY!!! DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS 05 APRIL 2012
Let's get together and spent great time dancing and singing at the festival in anciently old city Ohrid called Balkan Jerusalem with beautiful Ohrid Lake. Hope you will like this video from Ohrid:
APPLICATION PROCESS FOR VII INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL "HANIOTI"- GREECE 15 - 20 MAY 2012 IS CLOSING....
But fortunately for all our FOLK FRIENDS around the world, Makfolk & Talija Team would like to accept two more groups to join the folk groups from Nepal, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Moldova, Poland and be part of our festival. Therefore we are sending you this INVITATION at the last moment.
HURRY UP AND APPLY!!! DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS 25 MARCH 2012
Let's get together and spent great time dancing and singing in the magical part of Halkidiki, with lovely sandy beaches.
Waiting for your applications......:-)
For more information you can visit our web site www.makfolk.com ,
The Festival Program for 2012 is ready and we like to share it with all of you.In this respect, we would like to invite you to participate on the festivals that will be organized in 2012 and give us an opportunity to meet you and your group and enjoy in your performances.If you need more information or you have additional questions please feel free to contact us any time.
We will send you the application from when you will inform us on which festival you would like to participate.
MAKFOLK association team has a great pleasure to announce festivals for 2012:
1. International children’s folk dance festival “HANIOTI 2011” –Hanioti, Greece 15-20 May 2. International veteran’s folk dance Festival “Ohrid Waves”–Ohrid,Macedonia 14-17 June 3. International folk festival “Mare Adriatiko” –Lido Di Jesolo, Italy 17-22 June 4. International folk dance festival “Alegria” –Callela, Spain 23-30 June 5. International folk dance festival “Varna 2012” –Varna, Bulgaria 30 June-05 July 6. International children’s folk festival “Ohrid Waves” –Ohrid, Macedonia 26-30 July 7. International folk dance festival “Hanioti 2012” – Hanioti, Greece 25-30 September
