24th. Kaláka festival, Day 1 Thursday 10-07-2003
For the first time I visited this festival and I can
tell you that It will be not the last time.
It was the 24th. time this festival was done
and I aspect the 25 time will be even more better.
Kaláka is a group that exists now for 34 years.
As I understand they play some traditional folk,
but they specialized to work with children.
Later I will try to get some more background
information and I will direct you to some web pages
The festival started this year on Thursday with
2 concerts in the garden of the mayor of Miskolc.
The first group was a local group and they immediately
stole my heart with their great musical scales.
They played on various traditional instruments and it
was a pity that the girl on the special drum only
sang one song, because her voice was outstanding good.
Here are some pictures of the band called Esztenás
The second picture was taken when only 2 members performed
a song on violin and on the ütõgardon
It was a very serious song but it was played with such
a good feeling that everybody was enjoying it.
A short intermission to change the stage was filled with a short
speech of ........... As I understood he was thanking the mayor
for using the garden and for making the festival possible.
But I could be mistaken and maybe he talked about
completely other things, that were interesting too.
After this opening concert it was time for Kaláka to perform.
For me it was very difficult because a big part of their songs
depend on the lyrics and I still do not understand the beautiful
but very difficult to learn Hungarian language.
On the next picture you can see that the mayor's garden was
nicely filled and as I understood the mayor was also looking
from the balcony to the concerts.
Around nine it was all over and I left Miskolc
to drive to Diósgyór where the rest of the festival
will be hold and also where the camping was.
I never realized that I had hold Diósgyór so many
times in my hand when I paid my drinks and foods.
It looks in real even more amazing as it does
on the 200 forint bill.
.
An interesting link is
http://www.biomusic.hu/
with a lot of information
and also video about the
festival.