Maastrichts Mooiste 2007 (Part 2): Global Culture Festival: a multicoloured event in Maastricht
Over the weekend of 8 – 10 June 2007 the city of Maastricht was host to a cultural and athletic festival known collectively as ‘Maastricht’s Mooiste’. Organized annually by the Maastricht’s Mooiste foundation, the event proved to be a dynamic and unforgettable event full of great multicultural flavor and pleasant competition.
Organized by the university’s Studium Generale cultural organisation, Koko student association, Maastrichsts Mooiste foundation, and the city of Maastricht, Maastricht’s Global Culture Festival took its audience on a flavourful voyage through music and food from all corners of the world.
After a morning programme devoted to sports and health information, the event turned into a fabulous musical journey featuring concerts by a variety of international artists such as ‘Drum Se’ from India, ‘Okubua’ from Suriname, ‘Kwani Experience’ from South Africa and ‘Nfithe’ from Mozambique.
Exotic instruments that I had never seen before and unusual dance performances enriched the hearts and souls of the audience.
Okubua’s artists, who played drums to call the spirits of their ancestors, were qualified musicians who made use of the festival as a platform to demonstrate their proficiency but also to get their culture across to the audience. They also performed during Tilburg’s Festival Mundial on June 15, 16 and 17 with the mission statement “Music Beats Poverty”, a political message calling for all to get involved.
Kwani Experience who sang in English used the the lyrics of their “Rwanda Song to fight war.
The various musicians and also the groups who demonstrated their dancing skills during the interim periods between the bands encouraged the audience to take an active part in the festival.
A surprising aspect of the festival was to be found in the audience itself. Although Maastricht has a reputation for being quite international, due to its closeness to Belgium and Germany and its fairly large international community of foreign students and employees, the overall impression in the city is still that most people come from Western countries. But the Global Culture Festival gave another impression. Visitors were a great mixture of all ages and seemed to come from many different, and not only Western, countries.
The Global Culture Festival brought people together through music, sports, food and drinks – an obviously very effective means to spread communication, tolerance and action. After the last band Nfithe had left the stage there were still people drumming and staying for a typical ‘feestje’ in Maastricht.
The Global Culture Festival was yet another proof that Maastricht is an international place and that its inhabitants are interested in different cultures. More global festivals would be very welcome!
Text by Louisa Kistemaker
Photographs by Eliot Rolen
Eliot Rolen (US) and Louisa Kistemaker (Germany) are currently studying at University College Maastricht. They are both correspondents for Informeel, within the newly launched UM Student Media initiative.
Related articles:
Drum Se, Terra Festival Alkmaar 2007
Kwani Experience, Festival Mundial Tilburg 2007
Nfithe, Festival Mundial Tilburg 2007
