Following two successful events in 2007 and 2009 the third edition of the EuroMed Music Festival will take place - with the support of the European Union Culture Programme 2007-2013 - from the 3rd to the 13th of June 2010 in three cities in East and Central Europe: Budapest (Hungary), Belgrade (Serbia) and Katowice (Poland). This year the program was selected to become part of the UNESCO International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures 2010 program series.
The Festival wishes to respond to current social problems, when gaps continue to exist between civilizations and cultures, when the individuals have to face with a society that becomes more and more multicultural. The musicians – whose origins roots back to twelve different countries and cultures – will spend 5 days in Budapest sharing their experiences in a variety of traditional and modern musical genres. They are supposed to use Arab, Jewish, African, Balkan and jazz music elements for the creation of nine new world music products that will be first staged during the three-day festivals closely following each other in the three cities. In Budapest the centrally located popular place, the Gödör Klub’s open air terrace will give the space for the debut performances.
This year, beside nine Hungarian musicians taking part in the event, Tunisia, Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Spain, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Serbia and Poland will also be represented.
What can be the fruit of the meeting of professional musicians coming from different corners of the globe and how they can manage to build bridges through music and reach the audience attention? Forty-five venturesome artists with a vast international experience will look for the answer during the event and will do their best to open their ears and mind to understand each other and create a unique sound of fusion of traditional and modern music elements.
The organizers who attempt the third time to create nine collaborations gave the opportunity for young talented musicians and artists who already past rich years in the professional scene and reached high reputation in smaller or wider scale.
The audience will be the first to listen to the meeting of – just to name a few - the African-bluesy unique voice of the Belgian Minata Traoré with the Tunisian young oriental violin player Youssef Haj, the meeting of the world wide famous Portuguese Rão Kyao and the Turkish Oud player, Mehmet Polat who might find bridges between Far-East, Turkish and Fado musical heritage, or the creation between the virtuoso Israeli Oud player Sameer Makhul and well-known Serbian bass player Vasilic Nenad and Hungarian percussionist Kornél Horváth. You can also listen to the songs of modern flamenco singer Paloma Povedano accompanied by Tunisian Quanun player Daly Triki, or the promising young talent pianist Omri Mor, the Middle Eastern percussionists Yinon Muallem and Ayman Mabrouk, the Belgian saxophonist Manuel Hermia, theSerbianvocalist Bojana Nikolic, the Hungarianmulti-instrumentalist Béla Ágostonor the Egyptian Mohammed Antar who plays various types of Ney. The endless list can be continued with full of great artists of the surrounding area.
The artistic production will result from a collective creation, thus supporting new European identities, cultural pluralism and enforcing mutual enrichment of contemporary creations between Europe and its Mediterranean neighbors. The aim of the festival is also to show how music can be a mediating tool between cultures, and how a point can be reached where the different cultures join, creating new, universal values. The event was first held in 2007 in Budapest for the initiative of the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism and with the support of the Anna Lindh Foundation.
Organiser: Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism Co-organizers: Multikultivator servis za razvoj kulture i umetnosti (Belgrade, Serbia) Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris (Katowice, Poland)
Dates: Budapest - June 8-10, 2010 Belgrade – June 9-11, 2010 Katowice – June 11-13, 2010
This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation.
May 6th 2010
Following two successful events in 2007 and 2009 the third edition of the EuroMed Music Festival will take place - with the support of the European Union Culture Programme 2007-2013 - from the 3rd to the 13th of June 2010 in three cities in East and Central Europe: Budapest (Hungary), Belgrade (Serbia) and Katowice (Poland). This year the program was selected to become part of the UNESCO International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures 2010 program series. 
