Urszula Dudziak, photo courtesy of the Warsaw Cross Culture Festival (www.estrada.com.pl)
The Polish capital once again hosts a veritable melting pot of different musical cultures - the seventh edition of the Warsaw Cross Culture Festival, which kicks off on the 25th of September 2011
The festival is one of the most important cultural events featuring world music in Europe. The leitmotif of this year's edition is a multicultural Europe, expressed by artists from several countries. In addition to great music, attendees can also feast their eyes on numerous films, attend interactive seminars, as well as art exhibitions
During the past six years of its existence, the Festival permanently fit into the multi-cultural landscape of Warsaw, building its character and prestige and gathering its own loyal audience. Over 130 individual artists and groups from over 48 countries have presented their art within the Festival so far.
This year, the Festival includes 14 exceptional concerts (two per day) and seven unforgettable days of music workshops during which special instruments and dance techniques from the four corners of the world are demonstrated.
But the real highlight of this year's festival, as in previous editions, is the high quality of the music being featured. The first concert - at Warsaw's Sala Kongresowa - is performed by Polish singer Urszula Dudziak, a world-renowned jazz vocalist with a repertoire spanning almost four decades. She performs with Superband, a band which she created especially for this festival.
The concert is followed with a performance by Nigerian Femi Kuti & Positive Force, a laureate of several awards, including two Grammy Award nominations.
This is but a taste of what the festival has in store. Other musical attractions include Sara Tavares (Portugal), Carmen Linares and Mercedes Peón (Spain), Corvus Corax (Germany), Maria Kalaniemi (Finland), Hoven Droven (Sweden), Aynur (Turkey), Psarantonis (Greece), Barbara Furtuna (Corsica) and The Idan Raichel Project (Israel).
The concerts between the 26th of September and the 1st of October are held in a special tent in front of Warsaw's iconic Palace of Culture and Science.
Warsaw's Cross Culture Festival is not only about the music. A selection of feature and documentary films categorised under the title "Music in Film" are screened in the city's Kinoteka cinema between 26-30 September.
Among the six films on the programme is "Music is the weapon" (UK, 1982), a documentary film following one of Africa's most prominent musicians, Fela Kuti, at the top of his career (he died in 1997). Other films include "Flamenco, flamenco" (Spain, 2010), a cult film by Carlos Saura portraying the mysterious and seductive world of flamenco culture, "Lusofonia, A (R)evolucao" (Portugal, 2006) and "Guca!" (Serbia, 2006).
All film tickets are available at Kinoteka within the Palace of Culture and Science from the 16th of September. Tickets to the musical events can be purchased at www.eventim.pl.
For more information about the festival see: Warsaw Cross Culture Festival.
Source: press release.