IV Csángó Festival in Poland
05.10. Gdańsk / Dom Zarazy, Stary Rynek Oliwski 15 / Klub Paszcza lwa, ul. Kwietna 39
06-08.10 Toruń / Ethnographic Museum, 19 Wały Gen. Sikorskiego St.
On 6-8 October 2023, we invite you to Toruń for a celebration of the traditional culture of Hungary, Poland and Ukraine – the Csángó Festival in Poland. The Festival sustains and revives traditions, warms relationships and creates friendships between enthusiasts of the traditional cultures through the feeling of community, fun, and relaxation.
*** You can buy tickets on-line or in the Museum in Toruń. ***
This year’s final edition will be full of various attractions and events – music, dance and singing workshops, dance parties, concerts, exhibitions. We will host a large group of artists from Hungary, including representatives of the Csángó people: from Moldva – Mária Petrás, the most famous folk singer and artistic ceramicist, and from Gyimes – musicians István Lukács and Eszter Vitos. Chango melodies will also be played by outstanding reconstructionists and multi-instrumentalists – violin virtuoso Gergely Sámsondi, Gyula Horváth, great flutists – Dániel Bolya and Vajk Máté Gyulai. There will also be Farkas Gyulai, a respected fiddler and chango singer, and Vince Meszaros, a specialist in music from Transylvania and Bukovina. Participants will have a great opportunity to learn csángó dances from an expert in this field – Juliá Skopp.
Melodies and chants from Polish Carpathian region will be preformed by Jan, Kacper and Zuzanna Malisz (Malisz Band form Little Beskid), and from the Polish-Ukrainian foothills by Pawel Iwan together with Ukrainian artists Maksym Nakonieczny playing the violin, Severyn Danyleiko playing the bass, and an outstanding violinist and singer Serhiy Ohrimchuk.
The Malisz band go beyond the framework of “folklore music” and enter into a dialogue with the present day, as well as touching on various styles. The band has won many awards and preform worldwide.
The musical improvisation workshop based on csángó melodies will be conducted by Kazimierz Nitkiewicz, a great trumpet player known mainly from the Warsaw Sentimental Orchestra.
We are happy to present artists and animators of traditional culture from different places: especially form Poznań – Jacek and Alicja Hałas, founders of the Poznań Dance House in 2000, csángó music and dance lovers, members of the most interesting folk formations in Poland, co-creators of international artistic and theatrical projects, Toruń – Marta Domachowska, Katarzyna Kostańska-Maziarz and Dominik Wóltański, and Gdansk – Piotr Kluczek and Magdalena Olkiewicz.
Maintaining traditions in everyday life is important – it brings nationalities together – in addition, mixed areas such as that inhabited by the Csángós and the entire Carpathian region help us to understand humanity and set an example of how to live in peace and harmony. You can find everything in folklore: every nation has its history deeply inscribed in its cultural heritage. We want to bring out these riches and use them to enrich our lives, our health and our hearts,” explain the festival organisers from the Aeris Futuro Foundation and the Szépszerével Band.
The music of the Hungarian Csángós tradition is unique – you will find medieval melodies, gypsy rhythms, Jewish, Balkan and even Polish. An advantage of csángó dances may be the fact that most of them are circle dances, so no partner or partner is needed, and the steps are usually simple, although the tempos are sometimes very fast.
Festival of Polish and Hungarian dance houses
In Poland, we are witnessing a rivival of traditional folk culture among big city dwellers. The inspiration came from Hungary, where the dance house movement (táncház) started more than half a century ago. The Csángó Festival in Poland is a good example of the flourishing of the dance house movement and, at the same time, of traditional culture: we dance, make music and sing together. The fusion of temperaments and the explosion of joy in making music and dancing together with Polish artists have generated ideas for the next edition of the Festival.
Our dream is also to draw new people into this circle, into this atmosphere, so that they too can feel the positive emotions that we experience while already immersed in the beauty of traditional culture, the organisers add.
Ecological and social solutions in the organisation of events is our tradition
Joanna Mieszkowicz, as part of the Aeris Futuro Foundation, has been co-creating the Green Events programme since 2009 – we promote pro-environmental and pro-social innovations in the organisation of events and try to implement them ourselves when organising events. These ideas also guide the organisers on the Hungarian side – the Szépszerével band.
As part of the Csángó Festival, among others:
- All concerts and dances will be with live music, without an artificial sound system, i.e. they will be unplugged
- We avoid air conditioning, unhealthy artificial lighting, unnecessary printing and waste generation
- We rely on land-based public transport, carpooling, and locally also cycling and walking
- We choose event venues that are well connected to different parts of the city, the region and Poland
- Choosing event venues adapted to people with disabilities
- We focus on local food, without harmful chemicals, meat-free
- We showcase and support the culinary heritage – you won’t find products from international brands here
- Showcasing the cultural heritage of ethnic minorities
- We support grassroots artistic and environmental initiatives – we cooperate with NGOs
- We bring generations together – involving seniors and young people as well as families with young children
- We unite nations and generations in the name of common values
More information at https://www.facebook.com/festiwalczango
About the organisers
From Poland: Joanna Mieszkowicz, founder of The Aeris Futuro Foundation, and long-standing President, has been implementing projects to protect and promote cultural and natural heritage for more than 15 years. We are particularly close to the traditional culture of Poland and Hungary, which is why, as of 2019, we have organised more than a dozen meetings in the form of dance houses (táncház), including two editions of the Csángó Festival in Poland. In Poland, we are witnessing a burgeoning love of traditional folk culture among the inhabitants of large cities. Inspiration came from Hungary, where the dance house movement began more than half a century ago.
From Hungary: Gergely Sámsondi and Farkas Gyulai, the Szépszerével band, has been running a dance house on Budapest’s Gellert Hill every Wednesday since 2008. They learnt about music and folk customs through their own experience, as they are apprentices to village musicians mainly from Transylvania (Erdély), now an area of Romania and once the Principality of Hungary. Unfortunately, most of the indigenous artists are no longer alive, hence the even greater value for the participants here in Poland – the opportunity to touch living history.
Organizers
Co-organizer
Sponsors
Fundacja im. Wacława Felczaka w Budapeszcie
Partners
Media Patrons
