5 YEARS FOLK INSPIRATIONS IN LODZ
International Festival of Youth Creativity Folk Inspirations has taken place in Lodz since 2011. Pałac Młodzieży and Convivo Foundation are the organizers of the Festival.
The idea behind the festival is to inspire young people to create contemporary works in various artistic fields, based on the cultural traditions of peoples and ethnic groups. An important element of the program is to promote multicultural Lodz and culturally diverse regions of Lodz and the different cultures in the world. Folk Inspirations is an innovative educational and cultural event due to a variety of places and events of international youth projects implemented during the festival.
Folk Inspirations is not an ordinary folklore festival. It has its own character and unique atmosphere created by the energy of young people. This is a festival that creates youth fascinated by the culture and traditions of the nations and ethnic groups in the world.
During Folk Inspirations there is a place for traditional folk dance and folk song, but also for the song and contemporary dance – inspired by folk culture. The festival is a place for such presentations as designers installations, craft experiments, cross-cultural dance forms performed by international groups of young artists, the music combines tradition and modern sounds and traditional songs in a new arrangement. Festival stands out because of its innovative educational activities around the themes of cross-cultural and national heritage. For children and youth we have prepared “Folk educational path”, based on innovative working methods: flashmobs, quests, field games, urban games, and activities in Lodz museums.
For 5 years the programme of the festival consisted of concerts, street dance show, performances of street theater, music projects, competition: dance, vocal, vocal -music, photo and design – GOLDEN BOAT, action workshop and education, fashion shows, exhibitions of works competition, street actions with audience participation and folk picnics.
In five consecutive editions of the festival there were young artists from 22 countries: Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Georgia, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary and Italy. The festival was attended by far a total of 1,400 young artists, about 200 volunteers and more than 500 students in Lodz. Festival events were watched by far more than 6,000 spectators.