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| The 'Masala Welt-Beat Festival'
is a yearly festival that aims at bringing different cultures
together. The festival takes place in and around Hannover,
Germany with music concerts, world market, discussion forums
and diverse intercultural events on the program's list.
AFRITOPIC attended the festival and interviewed Gerd Kespohl,
who is one of the initiators of the festival. Also presented
are photos from one of the festival's concerts featuring MacireSylla.
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Afritopic: This year
is the 10th anniversary of 'Masala Welt-Beat
Festival'. How did you develop the festival's
concept?
Kespohl: One
of the tasks of the organization I am working for, 'Pavillon
Kulturzentrum', is to introduce diverse cultures of the
world to the public. This includes presenting non-popular
music from different parts of the world. Initially, we broadly
classified the types of music in relation to their continents
of origin and started an event-series in 1985 with African
musicians. The series received very a positive resonance from
the public. This motivated us to initiate another concert
series aimed at presenting artists not only from Africa but
also from other continents. The concept was to invite
relatively unknown music artists from different continents. In
fact, the names of some of the artists we invited were so
alien that the public had difficulty in pronouncing them.
Unfortunately, the concerts did not attract enough interest
and we had to cancel the series a year after. We realized that
we could generate more public interest if we organize the
event in form of a festival with a mixture of well-known music
stars and less poplar upcoming musicians. We developed a 3-day
weekend festival concept with the Pavillion as the
festival's venue. The first festival in 1995 brought a
mixture of different music artists to the Pavillion in
Hannover and the name 'Masala', an Indian word meaning a
mixture or blend of spices, was conceived. |
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| Macire
Sylla |
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Afritopic: How did you move on from the first festival?
Kespohl: Through the feedback from the public and invited
artists, we knew that we had the right concept. In the
following years, we invited both famous as well as new artists
while the public interest and support grew. We looked for ways
to extend the scope of the festival and decided to cooperate
with the 'Landesmuseum' (National Museum) in a
first step. The museum maintains very good contact to Asia and
organizes regular exhibitions on Asian arts and culture. This
gave us the opportunity to provide a venue other than the
pavilion, where artist could perform and the public could
enjoy both Arts exhibition and music. Music group from Vietnam
and the African musician, Abubakar Toure from Mali, have
performed on the museum's premises. Our next step was to
contact the theater in Hannover 'Theater am Aegi' with the
idea of using its hall for theater performances, which we
intended to include in the festival's program. From there we
moved on to cooperate with the proprietors of the 'Gartentheater Herrenhäuser Gärten'. Each summer, a
colorful traditional garden festival takes place for weeks on
the premises of this royal garden, making it a perfect venue
for the extension of the Masala Welt-Beat festival. At the
garden festival, the music is traditionally classics, so we
optioned for a Tango orchestra to perform instead of an
African group as part of the festival. We continued to extend
the catalog of events and the events' venues. We even
organize events in the suburbs and other regions around
Hannover. In this year for example, we invited a Scandinavian
music group, which performed at the 'Schloss Landestrost
Neustadt'. In this way, we have been able to gain synergy
effect by attracting people with different tastes and at
various locations to the festival. |
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| The Macire
Sylla's guitarrist |
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| A
discussion forum with Oumou Sy |
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| Gerd Kespohl |
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Afritopic: Which other
events have you included in the festival's program apart
from music groups from different continents?
Kespohl: We
developed the festival's concept on 3 basic units; music
concerts, workshop and world market in form of a bazaar. The
bazaar should also serve as a platform where Africa initiative
organizations could present their work as well as acquire
political and business information. The bazaar attracts more
people each year. There were about 500 visitors some years ago
and this year, we receive 5 000 visitors per day. It also
provides opportunities for local artists to meet international
artists and eventually work together. Another important part
of the program is the children program, which for the fourth
time this year includes the big attraction, 'Kinderkarawane' (children caravan). |
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children from diverse cultural backgrounds playing with each
other and having fun together in a way that shows that the
skin color does not play a role. We hope that by introducing
children to other cultures at an early age, the festival could
contribute to better understanding between the cultures. We
want the festival to serve as a converging point of different
cultures. People from other cultures living in Germany should
have a feeling of being at home and Germans have the chance to
meet other cultures through music. |
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Afritopic: I could see that you are very interested in
intercultural issues. Do you develop the interest through
contacts or travels to other countries?
Kespohl: I
would say that the interest comes from my personality. Already
as a child, I could not understand why disputes should provoke
violence. I was of the opinion that there should ways to
settle disputes without violence. I was always against
violence. As I grew older, I started developing interest in
people and people's behavior. I later studied philosophy and
German at the Hamburg University, where I made languages,
people's feelings and way of thinking my major topics. I did
not have any special influence from music nor do I play a
musical instrument. I grew up without bias and my interest in
people grew naturally. I realized that the general negative
opinion about foreigners by some Germans is not true. It is
normal in life that there are differences in views but I
believe that peaceful solutions or compromises could always be
found. I have not been to many countries. I was in Greece and
Thailand but never been to Africa. That is why it is like a
virtual travel for me when I see people from different
cultures at the festival. My interest in intercultural issues
developed through my interest in people. |
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Afritopic: How do you coordinate and manage the organization
of the festival?
Kespohl:. In the very beginning, my colleague Christoph was
working in the Pavillion in the department of political issues
and I was responsible for concerts. On the initiation of the
Masala festival concept, we decided to work together. In the
first 3 years, Christoph Sure and myself shared the
responsibilities of organizing the festival between us. We
contacted music artists, people interested in the world
market, sponsors, institutions and organizations. We then
delegated duties to other people working for the Pavillion or
hired to for the festival. The festival became bigger, so we
decided that each of us should be responsible for a defined
set of tasks. Christoph is now responsible for raising fund,
finance, accounting and organization. I am responsible for
negotiations with artists' agents and music groups. In this
way, we have been able to meet the management and coordination
challenges posed by festival, which has been extended to 16
days from the initial 3-day festival. However, we need to hire
more people each year to cope with the growth. Last year, in
addition to the in Pavillion, we hired 75 people to work for
the festival.
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Afritopic: You mentioned
fund raising. How is the festival financed?
Kespohl:
Events, concerts and other fees generate between 40 % and 50%
of the total cost of the festival. Government and political
institutions sponsor the rest. The total cost of this year's
festival is about Euro 280 000. The commercial aspect is not
our first priority. Though by visiting the World of Music
(WOM) expo, we maintain contacts with music labels to produce
the festival's music CD and get the latest information.
Christoph and I do not receive extra payments for organizing
the festival. Our remunerations are practically covered by our
salaries at the Pavillion. |
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| Macire
Sylla's
background vocalist |
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Afritopic: In which direction do you think that the scope of
the festival could be extended?
Kespohl: After each festival, we analyze and discuss the
feedbacks, events as well as our observations. We do not plan
for many years in advance. In the beginning, we said, 'we
shall continue to organize the festival as long as we enjoy
organizing it and stop at the peak of our success in
organizing the most beautiful festival. Probably in 10
years'. That was 10 years ago. The festival is our 'baby'. We are responsible for it and for those who have
been helping to make it a successful event. We want to see it
become even more popular. If we find a new theme that fits
into the festival's concept, we would definitely include it
in the program. This year for example, we are working together
with the School of Music to organize a discussion forum with
the topic 'Made in Africa' in which the African fashion
designer, Oumou Sy, will participate. We are also presenting a
fashion show by Oumou Sy sponsored by the German Central
Department of political Education. We have received
suggestions to organize the festival on large premises that
could take up to 5000 visitors. But we do not want the
festival to grow beyond our control. We prefer to organize
diverse intercultural events for a maximum of 1500 attendees.
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| Audience
enjoying Macire sylla's music |
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Afritopic: Do you have internship possibilities for students
that would like to gain event management experience?
Kespohl: We have two young people helping with the organization
of the festival. They were involved in the general planning,
advertising and public relations. We also have 2 students that
are writing their diploma thesis on the festival. I was
surprised to hear that the festival has become a topic for
diploma thesis. The festival is now science.
Afritopic: What is your wish in relation to intercultural
developments in Germany?
Kespohl: We have people from different cultural backgrounds
living in Germany. I wish that these people were welcome and
integrated into the German society and not secluded in
ghettos. I wish that the people coming to live in Germany made
use of the opportunities available to learn the German
language and wish that the Germans were more open to accept
other cultures. Christoph and I wish that the Masala festival
would continue to serve as a platform, where diverse cultures
would meet, adore and appreciate each other.
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| Afritopic
2004 |
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| Photo
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| Macire
Sylla |
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| Macire
Sylla
Concert
The Masala festival 2004 had a
series of music concerts on its program. On the evening of
Saturday June 19th, the fantastic singer MacireSylla
from Conakry, Guinea thrilled the audience to a blend of Afro
beat, pop, rock and reggae in her native language. The agile
artist and her backup vocalist made the dancing floor swing
for solid 2 hours non-stop.
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| Afritopic
2004 |
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