5th Brave Festival Summary
9 days, 131 artists, plane tickets for 82 people, 70 volunteers, 500 dinners for festival guests, 15 languages spoken during the festival, thousands of e-mails and telephones in search for artists, arranging visas and seeing to details. The Brave Festival is finished. The figures above show the logistic Rubik's cube as well as the multitude of tasks that the organizers had to deal with. Nevertheless, there are many things that the figures cannot show. They can not show the tears of the women from the Pankisi Gorge who cried while remembering their deceased husbands and sons during the Zikr ritual for the world peace. What else can not the figures show? For example, the concentration of the Tibetan monks creating a sand mandala or listening to the crystal clear voice of Divna, who was singing Old Byzantin liturgic chants; nor the colourful clothes of the shaman and her talks with the souls of suddenly deceased people, wandering around Wrocław. They are also unable to show the amazing positive energy transmitted from our African guests, Toumani Diabate, and the representatives of the Wagago tribe; nor all the things that remained in the participants of the Brave Kids project, the unusual experience of unexpected spontaneous mixing of cultures, like during a piece of breakdancing to the rhythm of the traditional Polish “Wild daisy” tune...
Also, the figures cannot express the organizers' helplessness in face of the bureaucratic machine, which did not allow to organize visas for the children from Rwanda; nor the hectic search for the kora - a 21 stringed instrument made from a calabash , which first got to Athens instead of Wrocław, and then to Munich.
The main theme of this year's festival made it differ from the previous ones. First of all it differed in its unique spiritual dimension. We did get close to the mystery of the world's prayers: theyyam and the ritual when a deity entered the dancer; the shaman who made the wind blow but managed to control the rain. “All these experiences went far beyond the limits of theater and art,” says Grzegorz Bral, the festival director. “Those were not typical artists, but people full of spirituality who offered us a deep message,” adds Anastazja Gołaj, the coordinator of the Brave Kids project and the executive producer of the festival.
Unquestionably this year's festival was full of spirituality, emotions, unexpected meetings and the mutual respect between representatives of particular cultures. The organizers ensured that, for example, the Tibetan monks saw a belly dance or animistic African rites, and the founder of the Rokpa International was able to listen to the Old Byzantine chants. Perhaps this is why the festival director, Grzegorz Bral, prefers to call the festival “a project” rather than “a festival”. This distinct character is particularly visible in the Brave Kids project, which was started this year. It lasted for two weeks and consisted in workshops whose participants were Ugandan, Nepali and Polish children from difficult social backgrounds. During the workshop the children prepared for the final performance, but what is more important, they also learnt to communicate without words, create together, share their life experiences, share their sense of beauty and sympathy. It was by far the most moving project. Bral expects it to be continued in future editions of the festival. “What is important for me are the questions which arose during the festival, questions about the meaning of the Brave Kids: what to do to make the project really help? What can be done to enable children from many countries and cultures to meet and talk? What can be done to prevent the families the kids stay with from pampering them? How to show them the beautiful Poland, but to emphasize simultaneously their own sense of belonging to their own culture and help them appreciate their nationality so that they can be proud of who they are? Brave Kids provided us with valuable lessons and surely it was a good school of humbleness,” says Anastazja Gołaj.
Our festival grows bigger every year and attracts an increasingly large audience. This year the interest in the festival turned out to be so big that the organizers managed to sell two times more tickets than the cinema rooms could hold, and tickets for 14 events had sold out before the festival started. The festival has become an important event for the city, which is a patron of the festival. “When five years ago Grzegorz Bral presented us his concept of the festival he left no room for doubt that the event would be unique and would enrich the cultural offer of the city on many levels, also through its humanitarian dimension,” says Rafał Dudkiewicz, the mayor of Wrocław. When asked about the strength of the event, he says: „Its strength lies mainly in its unique formula, in presentation of disappearing traditions and cultures from all over the world, combining humanistic and artistic values. There is no ethnographic-anthropological-theatrical festival of this kind in our country, it's also difficult to find a similar one in the whole Europe, especially when you take into consideration the broad cultural offer: we can find there not only concerts, performances and shows, but also exhibitions and documentaries. The Brave Festival will not leave you indifferent, it talks about real people, it talks about ourselves. The festival, along with other summer events in Wrocław, becomes an important promotional element of the city. Wrocław presents itself as a place with a rich cultural offer throughout the year. It is the cultural events that are meant to attract visitors here . Due to its specific character and original programme the Brave Festival presents the city as open to brave and committed culture,” emphasizes Paweł Romaszkan, the director of the City Promotion Office. Along with the popularity of the festival, also the critical voices appear, complaining about the selection of artists. But the Brave Festival means a risk. Due to its character , the organizers often invite artists whose work they are not able to know beforehand, because no recordings of their work are available anywhere. But what's the most important for the organizers is the authenticity of their guests. “I have heard several times that the festival has lost its niche character. Sometimes it sounds like a praise, sometimes like a complaint. But I still think that the festival was, is and will continue to be for a group of people with particular interests. It's great to see that this group growing,” says Marcin Hamkało, who is responsible for marketing and image of the festival.
You can still see the exhibitions from this year's festival, not all of the artists have managed to get back home yet, but the organizers are already thinking about the next year's festival. This time its main theme is going to be the mystic Himalaya mountains. The organizers are planning to invite groups of nomads, dancers and drummers living in the Himalayas. We want to give you insight into life of the nomads, their secular traditions, Tibetan medicine enriched by a medical conference. We also want to show monastery life, monastic customs. “Next year festival will be different from the previous ones, as this time you will no see only performances, but rather one day long big events,” reveals Grzegorz Bral. Next month he and the festival producer are going to board a flight to Tibet, to invite selected artists.
Also, the figures cannot express the organizers' helplessness in face of the bureaucratic machine, which did not allow to organize visas for the children from Rwanda; nor the hectic search for the kora - a 21 stringed instrument made from a calabash , which first got to Athens instead of Wrocław, and then to Munich.
The main theme of this year's festival made it differ from the previous ones. First of all it differed in its unique spiritual dimension. We did get close to the mystery of the world's prayers: theyyam and the ritual when a deity entered the dancer; the shaman who made the wind blow but managed to control the rain. “All these experiences went far beyond the limits of theater and art,” says Grzegorz Bral, the festival director. “Those were not typical artists, but people full of spirituality who offered us a deep message,” adds Anastazja Gołaj, the coordinator of the Brave Kids project and the executive producer of the festival.
Unquestionably this year's festival was full of spirituality, emotions, unexpected meetings and the mutual respect between representatives of particular cultures. The organizers ensured that, for example, the Tibetan monks saw a belly dance or animistic African rites, and the founder of the Rokpa International was able to listen to the Old Byzantine chants. Perhaps this is why the festival director, Grzegorz Bral, prefers to call the festival “a project” rather than “a festival”. This distinct character is particularly visible in the Brave Kids project, which was started this year. It lasted for two weeks and consisted in workshops whose participants were Ugandan, Nepali and Polish children from difficult social backgrounds. During the workshop the children prepared for the final performance, but what is more important, they also learnt to communicate without words, create together, share their life experiences, share their sense of beauty and sympathy. It was by far the most moving project. Bral expects it to be continued in future editions of the festival. “What is important for me are the questions which arose during the festival, questions about the meaning of the Brave Kids: what to do to make the project really help? What can be done to enable children from many countries and cultures to meet and talk? What can be done to prevent the families the kids stay with from pampering them? How to show them the beautiful Poland, but to emphasize simultaneously their own sense of belonging to their own culture and help them appreciate their nationality so that they can be proud of who they are? Brave Kids provided us with valuable lessons and surely it was a good school of humbleness,” says Anastazja Gołaj.
Our festival grows bigger every year and attracts an increasingly large audience. This year the interest in the festival turned out to be so big that the organizers managed to sell two times more tickets than the cinema rooms could hold, and tickets for 14 events had sold out before the festival started. The festival has become an important event for the city, which is a patron of the festival. “When five years ago Grzegorz Bral presented us his concept of the festival he left no room for doubt that the event would be unique and would enrich the cultural offer of the city on many levels, also through its humanitarian dimension,” says Rafał Dudkiewicz, the mayor of Wrocław. When asked about the strength of the event, he says: „Its strength lies mainly in its unique formula, in presentation of disappearing traditions and cultures from all over the world, combining humanistic and artistic values. There is no ethnographic-anthropological-theatrical festival of this kind in our country, it's also difficult to find a similar one in the whole Europe, especially when you take into consideration the broad cultural offer: we can find there not only concerts, performances and shows, but also exhibitions and documentaries. The Brave Festival will not leave you indifferent, it talks about real people, it talks about ourselves. The festival, along with other summer events in Wrocław, becomes an important promotional element of the city. Wrocław presents itself as a place with a rich cultural offer throughout the year. It is the cultural events that are meant to attract visitors here . Due to its specific character and original programme the Brave Festival presents the city as open to brave and committed culture,” emphasizes Paweł Romaszkan, the director of the City Promotion Office. Along with the popularity of the festival, also the critical voices appear, complaining about the selection of artists. But the Brave Festival means a risk. Due to its character , the organizers often invite artists whose work they are not able to know beforehand, because no recordings of their work are available anywhere. But what's the most important for the organizers is the authenticity of their guests. “I have heard several times that the festival has lost its niche character. Sometimes it sounds like a praise, sometimes like a complaint. But I still think that the festival was, is and will continue to be for a group of people with particular interests. It's great to see that this group growing,” says Marcin Hamkało, who is responsible for marketing and image of the festival.
You can still see the exhibitions from this year's festival, not all of the artists have managed to get back home yet, but the organizers are already thinking about the next year's festival. This time its main theme is going to be the mystic Himalaya mountains. The organizers are planning to invite groups of nomads, dancers and drummers living in the Himalayas. We want to give you insight into life of the nomads, their secular traditions, Tibetan medicine enriched by a medical conference. We also want to show monastery life, monastic customs. “Next year festival will be different from the previous ones, as this time you will no see only performances, but rather one day long big events,” reveals Grzegorz Bral. Next month he and the festival producer are going to board a flight to Tibet, to invite selected artists.
