Balkan Trafik celebrates its 5th birthday in style - Bozar.be

Festival conceptBalkan Trafik stands for an exchange of culture and experience, where the doors are opened tointegration, communication, sharing experiences, and opening up to others. The festival wants todispel prejudice against the Balkan countries by showing the cultural richness and diversity of theregion. In an atmosphere of unity and companionship the real Balkans are truthfully presented to theaudience.The Turkish word balkan means 'wooded mountain'. Although all wooded mountains could thereforebe called balkan, 'the Balkans' refers to the impressive mountain range that extends east-west acro ssBulgaria, joining the Carpathian Mountains to the North of the Danube. It is also the name given to theregion made up of the various European states that emerged out of the disintegration of the OttomanEmpire.The Balkan region became characterised by a huge diversity of expression linked to its verydiv erse ethnic backgrounds. This also created music that was a mixture of local sounds: Turkishrhythms, brass sounds, traditional Albanian dances, rebetiko, Bosnian sevdah, Roma gypsy songs,and fast accordion melodies. The Eastern inspiration in Balkan music is easily recognised andexplained when you know that many Roma gypsies scattered themselves throughout the wholeof the Balkans. And wherever they go, they adopt words and other cultural characteristics from thelocal inhabitants, adding them to their own language and their own culture. Hence the influence ofeach country they visited can be heard in the rhythms and tones of their music. At the heart ofeverything, however, in the centre of this complex mosaic, it is the Ottoman tradition that shinesthrough.In order to succeed with an artistic programme such as that of Balkan Trafik, BOZAR and 1001Valises are developing a growing network in the Balkan countries and the Diaspora in this country. Aclose link between the history and the current artistic reality of the region is thus guaranteed. In theCentre for Fine Arts all art forms are given a place: music, film, theatre, dance, workshops,exhibitions, and animation.For its fifth birthday, Balkan Trafik once again presents the best of the Balkans and the Diaspora inthe Centre for Fine Arts. New additions this year include rock music (Duman and Zdob şi Zdub),Kabaret Manouche – a carte blanche performance from the Belgian-Hungarian violin virtuoso TchaLimberger, a genuine brass band battle, and an electro Saturday night. The magnificent musicalproject Margot, Memoirs of an Unhappy Queen from Goran Bregović shows the versatility and aboveall the musical genius of this celebrated artist. Like the play Journal d’un Femme du Kosovo, Margotbroaches the difficult subject of war. The icing on the cake is the Balkan Accordion Project, uniquelycreated for the festival, with Boban Bjelić, Peter Ralchev, and Ionică Minune.4