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30th International Africa Festival in Würzburg

The African Europa Festival is the biggest festival promoting African music and culture in Europe

June 13th, 2017
Hélène Meyer, News from Berlin
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The Festival will take place in Würzburg from May 31, 2018 until June 03, 2018. It exists since 1989 and it has hosted more than 6750 performers from 56 countries of the African continent in Germany.

Musicians and artists come to the festival from all over Africa and the Caribbean to play traditional and modern music. About 2 320 000 visitors have enjoyed the cultural discoveries through the media of music, fashion shows, discussions and photo exhibitions. Furthermore, the Festival displays African musical instruments, CDs, crafts and arts at a place called “the Bazaar”.

Originally, the African Europa Festival was created by the personal initiative of Stefan Oschmann, a psychologist in Würzburg, who wanted to hear African music more often without the need to travel far from Germany. The first concert took place in 1988 in the cultural center of Würzburg. The success of this event led him to repeat this initiative, which continues to grow.

“At the beginning, we wanted to show the diversity of the African culture. We wanted to show the positive side of Africa, because we only see the negative side in the newspapers”, explained Sefan Oschmann. The idea was to share African cultural wealth in Germany and Europe in order to strengthen intercultural relations between the two continents. The main supporters of the Afro Music Festival are the Stadt Würzburg, the Bavarian Ministry of sciences and culture and the Ministry of foreign affairs.

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News from Berlin