| ashu |
Posted
on 27-Nov-01 02:12 AM
Hi all,
What follows is from a friend.
In times like these, we can all use more peace, and music certainly promotes
peace.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
**************
WORLD FREEDOM FESTIVAL & PEACE CONCERT
SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER 2001
THE PLOT, SARANGKOT, POKHARA, NEPAL
AN INVITATION
Maitreya Productions would like to invite you to participate in the first World Freedom Festival to be held in Sarangkot, Nepal on
Saturday
1 December,
World Aids Day
2001.
PERFORMERS
ISHOR GURUNG - NAMASTE BAND (NEPAL)
JULIA & TRYBE (AUSTRALIA)
MELODY MUSIC (POKHARA)
WOMEN’S NEPALI BAND (SARANGKOT)
TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONKS
& SPECIAL GUESTS
THE FESTIVAL
A one-day freedom festival in aid of world peace and global harmony. Featuring international artists performing centre-stage in a peace concert dedicated to human rights, anti-racism and equality.
Festival grounds will host exhibitions by local community groups, enhancing awareness of grassroots issues and encouraging cultural exchange with foreign visitors.
Tibetan Buddhist Monks from local refugee communities will open the stage with their moving chants of peace, in non-violent prayer for an end to worldwide conflict.
Film projections will extend messages beyond words, exploring the merging meeting places between East and West. Against this backdrop, multi-cultural performers express universal stories through the powerful mediums of music and theatre.
At Festival headquarters, an ‘awareness gallery’ and media centre, called The Plot, will exhibit local visual art and handcrafts alongside articles relating to global community concerns. Village market stalls will lead visitors to the Festival entrance, with a special morning Peace Walk trekking up the mountain from Lakeside, Pokhara.
The concert will be recorded live for radio, Internet and TV broadcast, to reach wider audiences within Nepal and overseas. At a time of unrest throughout the world, this moment to capture the call for peace cannot be lost.
LOCAL IMPACT
Since September 11, sharp declines in tourism have dramatically affected local livelihoods and left many ‘little people’ facing dangerous levels of hardship without an alternative source of income.
The Festival will assist their survival at a time of crisis and encourage self-sufficiency, despite national and global instability. It will also bring knowledge of world events to a remote region, and inspire travellers to become informed about humanitarian issues which affect global progress.
The workshop area will be filled with information tables managed by Nepalese lower-caste anti-discrimination groups, women’s self-empowerment and skills development collectives, youth education initiatives, and refugee communities.
The Festival will specifically focus on locally recognised groups who are struggling independently without government support or NGO investment. It will also expose the local community to international organisations who promote human rights and sustainable development.
Initiating this day as an annual event will unite the people of Nepal as they address community issues of worldwide significance. It will create an invaluable outlet for the voices of Nepalese, Tibetan and Bhutanese communities to celebrate their identity and embrace cross-cultural-caste harmony. As a free festival for the people, it will enhance community spirit and inspire tolerance by creating an environment of reconciliation and empowerment.
The World Freedom Festival celebrates a place beyond gender, race, caste and religion, where inequality is obsolete. Equal rights = peace.
SUPPORT
The Festival and Maitreya Productions are entirely voluntary initiatives in aid of humanitarian concerns. While donation boxes will be positioned inside the Workshop and Stage areas, entry to the Festival will be free. Any donations received will be distributed equally to the participating unfunded community groups, and surplus will fund annual rent for a permanent community awareness centre at Festival Headquarters, to be shared by all local grassroots collectives.
Maitreya is organising this festival on the ground as an urgent reaction to recent humanity disasters. They have thus chosen to undertake the project without seeking prior funding, but have already gained wide support from local community sectors and grassroots groups. The Village Development Committee (VDC) of Sarangkot has officially endorsed the Festival and will provide assistance with local amenities and announcements. Local businesses have offered in-kind sponsorship or discounted services, as well as budget Festival accommodation.
The Australian Ambassador, Mr Crispin Conroy, and Australian Embassy in Kathmandu, are extremely supportive about the Festival and have pledged minimum financial support.
However, there is as yet no real budget available to fund the Festival and Maitreya still seeks suggestions for avenues of assistance through possible collaboration, sponsorship or advertising. The 2001 World Freedom Festival is requesting endorsement from humanitarian organisations around the world to show global community support for this groundbreaking event. We invite your representatives to attend and exhibit, or provide project information to be displayed on the day, to inspire and expose local communities to international assistance programs and ideals.
MAITREYA PRODUCTIONS
The World Freedom Festival is being organised by Maitreya Productions. Consisting of Julia and Tony Maitreya (Australia/UK), Maitreya aims to enhance racial harmony through the performing arts by creating an environment which visually, musically and emotionally inspires social unity.
An original Phantom of the Opera cast member and former Young Australian of the Year semi-finalist, Julia has spent the last 12 years performing internationally and producing shows which communicate human concerns to mainstream audiences. After writing the live-aid anthem Free Burma, she was invited to sing at the Hague Appeal for Peace and international Peace Asia Concert in Bangkok. Free Burma was broadcast on BBC Radio this year and will be performed for Burmese refugees in India after the World Freedom Festival.
Tony is a human-rights campaigner, event organiser, and original member of the Peace Asia committee. Born in London, he is of Anglo-Indian origin and specialises in drawing multi-cultures together in music programs and exhibitions to inspire racial harmony. In early 2000, Maitreya visited a remote indigenous Akha village on the Thai-Burmese border on the verge of being forcibly relocated from their ancestral lands. By emailing humanitarian groups and governments around the world, they drew worldwide attention to an imminent human-rights violation and prevented the village’s destruction.
Later that year, the duo produced TrYbe, featuring Free Burma, at various concert venues throughout Melbourne, Australia. TrYbe uses song, ritual and film to explore issues of refugee migration, women-trafficking, and humanity’s urgent need to believe. After the Nepal World Freedom Festival 2001, TrYbe tours to Delhi and the UK.
Maitreya intends to continue spreading the call for peace by initiating a series of similar festivals in Europe and Asia 2002.
MAITREYA PRODUCTIONS
THE PLOT, SARANGKOT, NEPAL
WORLD FREEDOM FESTIVAL 2001. EMAIL : maitreya7@angelfire.com
WORLD FREEDOM FESTIVAL & PEACE CONCERT
SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER 2001
THE PLOT, SARANGKOT, POKHARA, NEPAL
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