Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and of course Latvia, his home country - Andre Crash, a.k.a. DJ Crash, is the master of many European turntables. He was introduced to us through a common friend and supporter of this project. Now he is integral part of this movement and we are more than happy about it! // Andre Crash on MySpace

Andre about The Festival

Soon to come: a video message by Andre

About DJ Crash

Dj Crash started off as a DJ back in 1998, being strongly influenced by the legendary Latvian maestro DJ’s AG & Raitis.

Quickly establishing himself as one of Latvia’s finest upcoming DJs, in 2003 he earned a residency in Riga’s nightclub “Public”. DJ Crash was also invited to play at the first “Šlokenbeka” house music festival in Latvia way back in 2003, and has remained a resident of the event ever since.

In 2005, Crash was invited to play at Latvia’s most legendary nightclub “Nautilus” on a regular basis in the club’s VIP Lounge. On Saturdays, before performing at the club, Crash was handling the „Live broadcast from Club Nautilus” show on „Capital FM” radio, being live on air serving the Latvian party scene.

In 2006 DJ Crash scored the #1 position in the Latvian DJ Top 2006 stating him the most popular House DJ in Latvia (2007: #2 2008: #2 2009: #1).

In 2008, Crash still performed at events all over Latvia and abroad - for example, at the Baltics’ largest Dance music festival „Essential Knockout”. For the second time, DJ Crash was confirmed as a headline DJ in the VIP Dancefloor at „Sensation White” event in Riga where Markus Schulz and other big names of the international scene performed as headliners on the Mainfloor.

Crash has co-performed with such world-wide known DJs and artists as Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Martin Solveig, or Erick Prydz.

Where to get Andre’s music

Andre Crash and his Tasty Soundz tracks are available here…
Dj mixes are available here…

What an honor! They reside in the “holy” halls of Italian film music: the Forum Music Village - the historical recording studios founded by the legendary Ennio Morricone. Yes - there must be something special about the recently born Orchestra Italiana del Cinema.

We are honored and humbled that the Orchestra Italiana del Cinema has decided to support The Festival. For us visitors of the event this is a great move. We will hear many well known melodies - Italian movie themes - perfomed by an excellent orchestra.

Manager Paolo Petrocelli about the cooperation

“Luigi Pirandello, the Italian Nobel Prize in Literature, once wrote: ‘I must say, it is music that speaks to us all without a single word, it is music that expresses itself in sound and of which cinematography could become its visual language. There you have it: pure music and pure vision, the two perfect aesthetic senses, sight and sound, unified in one single enjoyment.’

Supporting The Festival is a natural fit for us to continue to bring real value to our mission, being part of what we believe will be the most important cultural event in Europe.”

About the OIC

The Italian Film Orchestra is the first non-profit organization and the first and unique symphonic ensemble that is exclusively dedicated to the interpretation and performance of film music.

The care and support of the extraordinary artistic heritage of Italian film scores, which boasts a glorious and prestigious tradition, are the underlying values of this new and ambitious project.

The OIC has united 200 hand-picked musicians from Italy’s best orchestras, a selection which brings together both new talents and seasoned veterans.

The Italian Film Orchestra has directly and indirectly attracted major movie score writers, and has at the heart of its mission important objectives of great cultural and institutional importance:

• To re-evaluate and to promote the Italian film score’s cultural heritage by means of multimedia concert events throughout Italy and in world’s major cities and artistic sites.
• To bring back to Italy those film score productions and talented composers that have “emigrated” to eastern European countries offering low cost services.
• To generate employment and high quality musical training for talented young musicians.
• To attract foreign productions to Italy.
• To sustain “Made in Italy” through the vehicle of artistic and cultural excellence.

On June 21st, 2010, OIC made its debut with a prestigious multimedia concert in Piazza del
Campidoglio, called “The Neorealist Sound.” The event took place with the support of the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, saw extensive media coverage and was awarded with both critical and popular acclaim.

The ensemble is now planning an intense recording and concert schedule , principally characterized by the aforementioned multimedia events.

www.orchestraitalianadelcinema.it

Contact

Orchestra Italiana Del Cinema

Paolo Petrocelli

Piazza Euclide, 34
00197 - Rome, Italy

tel +39 06 80.84.259
fax +39 06 80.74.947

petrocelli [at] orchestraitalianadelceinema.it

Eye Cue has been performing its own material since 2005. Their creative energy, as well as the audience’s energy, set the foundations of the band, which is completely dedicated to creating and building a career in the music industry.

Let’s send out a warm welcome to our new European faces from Macedonia!

Eye Cue on Facebook // Eye Cue on MySpace

About Eye Cue

Highly dedicated and showing an immense musical arrangement in their performance, Eye Cue still remains a contemporary rock ‘n’ roll formation that cannot be easily labeled - an original musical expression. Their collaboration with the renowned Macedonian producer, Valentino Skenderovski, began in 2007, with the preparation of the material for their debut album “Superstar Wannabe”. The video for their first single “Magija” was released in May 2008, which became a major success…

Five months later, the video for their second single “Superstar Wannabe” was released, the song that gave the name to their debut album. They had their official concert promotion for the album “Superstar Wannabe”, along with a video promotion for “Glowing Lips” in June 2009…

The band’s fourth and latest video for the single “Not this time” was broadcasted on the music channel MTV Adria in March 2010 , reached the top of the chart and was warmly accepted by the public throughout the Balkans…

Most notable performances: Exit Festival, Alarm Festival Ohrid, Macedonia, Summer 2010 – Schengen Fest – Slovenia, Vienna…

Contact

Lina Ugrinovska
Booking Manager
CTC Records
Skopje, Macedonia

Web: www.ctcrecords.mk
E-mail: lina@ctcrecords.mk
Skype: lina.ugrinovska
Phone: +389 78 444 769 / +389 75 742 838

Albert Einstein said, “If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

The idea to bring millions of Europeans together in one place - The Festival - where they can live, experience and enjoy Europe together - you might call it absurd.

But after almost four years of spinning the European wheel the number of supporters rises more and more every day.

The Festival vision has turned into a project.

How did we do it?

Here are eight buckets that helped pave the way.

If You Have A Vision Share It With Someone Who Has Vision

How many times you have a great idea, even a vision, and you go around the corner and share it with a friend sitting in a not so cosy bar sipping on not so cold beer. Do you think that is the place where you will find your partner in crime? No, you won’t.

Most people we know want to maintain the status quo - their status quo and, for sure, your status quo as well. They will do everything to bring you back to the ground THEY are standing on.

When I came up with The Festival idea the first person I talked to was the German Ambassador to Spain, Mr. Born.

Mr. Born had served a shaky diplomatic round in Ankara, Turkey, before that, hence I could be assured he would have a vision of Europe far away from the one my family and friends would ever have.

After a one hour meeting on October 11 2006 he said to me: “You have to do it!”

Look for visionary people to share your vision with. Odds are much higher to receive a first uplifting blow.

Exude Passion, Exude Enthusiasm

On July 21 2010 and following the TEDxBarcelona talk about The Festival two weeks earlier, I received this tweet: “KeeptheBounce @the7minutestar just watched your TEDx Speech. Well done, Flo your vision and passion is infectious”

It is true - the speech went well and many people told me that they loved my enthusiasm.

Another friend, Christoph Reisner, once told me that he couldn’t understand how I could be so passionate about telling the same story over and over again.

The answer is obvious: there is no alternative to passion and enthusiasm when it comes to selling your vision.

I just loved to be an Erasmus exchange student. That one-year-long European get-together was the time of my life and I love to talk about it - at least the parts I remember. When I talk about my Erasmus experiences, my European son, my European life in Barcelona, The Festival idea as the direct outcome of all that - this is what inspires people.

Because it is built on passion and enthusiasm.

There are no alternatives to P&E.

Make Your Vision Tangible!

Once I walked through the hallway of a HP plant in Barcelona and on a poster it said, SEEING IS BELIEVING.

This is so true - especially if you want people to believe in your vision. You have to make it tangible by any means.

In our case we follow a two-sided approach.

First - we use visualizations like this one here:

click on image

It doesn’t really matter how the final picture will look like.

What matters is a first positive impression. The idea of the actual event becomes tangible: “Ah, OK, a European mega party on a 2.2 km strip in the center of Berlin right in front of Brandenburg Gate. Now I see!”

We also produced a first theme song and video for the movement - I AM EUROPEAN.

Second - we use people, stars, talents, faces to make our European story tangible. Every testimonial, every story, every picture, every video add to the full circle of our vision - to create a platform where people from all over Europe embrace a European idea together.

Do It One-On-One Even If It Takes Time

This is tricky! You remember the watch? 24h only?

Not every project evolves like The Festival which has been running for almost four years now. We have time, we take our time.

But a crucial lesson we learned is that you can only sell your vision on a one-on-one basis.

We are talking about face-to-face meetings. Many of them - at least with your stake-holders. In our case we deal with brands, politicians, diplomats, the City of Berlin, operational partners, artists, cultural activists, Europeans…

This takes time.

What does not work at all is to create a fancy presentation and send around PDF files. Conversion rate: zero. At least in our project. You have to go and meet the people, look them into their eyes and inspire them to see what you see.

And social media? Gary Vaynerchuck, a successful online entrepreneur in the US, constantly repeats his message of absolute client orientation in our social media driven world. You have to answer all those emails, each one of them and tweets and follow up on Facebook posts. When a new face shows up that we want to post at thefestival.eu - this takes an hour every time, plus the time you need to gather all the background information, etc.

It takes time to sell a vision - sometimes years like in our case.

When Everyone Tells You To Stop, Keep Walking!

Here comes an amazing statistic:

100% of all my employed friends said at the beginning, “Don’t do it!”

100% of my entrepreneurial friends said, “Do it!”

It’s obvious who you should listen to if you are burning to start your own project.

But then with the time - we have been doing this for almost four years now - voices become louder. Voices telling you to quit.  Voices you trust.

It’s tough.

It helps to have a girl-friend who tells you that success comes one step after failure.

I don’t know what you would do, what you have done or what you will do. But I know that in our case failure is not an option.

We will keep walking because it’s the right cause and the right time.

Turn The ‘BUTs’ Into Improvements

People love to say “BUT”. Sometimes I think it’s the only word they really learned how to pronounce well. “Yes, it’s so sunny, so shining, so sparkling, BUT…” - How many times have I heard it in this project.

People always love to say “BUT”. Now - imagine what they do when you come up with some weird, intangible and visionary idea?

They would love to tear it apart in 1000 pieces. But they can’t do that with our project. No one can really deny the beauty of bringing together a multitude of people from all over Europe to create a bottom-up European team spirit.

What they do instead is they say their BUTs with more emphasis.

What we do is we take each criticism and try to turn it into something that helps improve our project.

Example: A high-ranking Blue Chip media representative told us the other day that he really liked the idea, BUT didn’t see this project get off the ground without the backing of the EU.

Since we had this on our mind for a while already and reinforced by this constructive feedback, we now turn the project into an NGO and go for public co-funding.

Potential improvements are hiding behind many BUTs. BUT be prepared - your next conversational partner will find three more BUTs.

If You Don’t Hear Your Partners Anymore Stop And Turn Around

There is one big danger of being “too visionary.” You might be losing track of your partners.

For you that carrot you are going after will always be juicy and orange. For your partners it can turn skinny and grayish. Motivational ups and downs in long-term projects are unavoidable. Make sure you always synchronize your perceptions.

Otherwise you keep running and running and running, then suddenly you turn around and… they are all gone. Make sure you always hear your partners. If you don’t, stop and turn around. You can only walk this path together.

A visionary has only a vision. A visionary with a team has a project.

Stick To Your Core Idea

Last but not least, you should always stick to your core idea, your vision. Feasibility is key to make it happen, yes. BUT not at the expense of your core idea.

The core idea is what makes you exude passion and enthusiasm.

The core idea enables you to inspire others to believe in something big.

The core idea is what you can always fall back on.

The core idea is the seed. Without a seed there is no tree.

Stick to your core idea - in our case to create a platform where people from all over Europe get together to live, experience and enjoy Europe together.

About The Festival

Initiated by seven Europe fans from Berlin and Barcelona, The Festival is a bi-annual event in European metropolises where more than 1,000,000 people from all over Europe come together and find inspiration to create and share the European experience. Together - we will see Europe, eat Europe, dress Europe, live Europe, hear Europe & play Europe! The mission of this exceptional European movement is to promote a pan-European feeling.

More information about The Festival you’ll find at thefestival.eu, facebook.com/thefestival, twitter.com/thefestival2011.

Contact us

Founder Konstantinos Kyranakis says:

“Young people are always searching for a strong idea to be passionate about, to create on it and to inspire their friends. Through the decades, many ideas were born, few have survived. The idea of a united Europe has been a strong one for more than 60 years. It is about living together and enjoying our diversity, it is about creating common experiences, it is about inspiring people with ideas that seemed impossible only 10 years ago. Inspiring people about Europe is a powerful idea.

Thinksters will support The Festival by any means because it fits our own vision. Bringing people together is the first step - to make them realize how important these moments are, is the tough one.”

July 7 2010 will always remain a milestone for The Festival project. This is the day when we really “went public” for the first time.

Yes - we had given minor presentations in diverse circles and yes - we had talked to approximately 756 people on a 1:1 basis. But on that 7th of July of 2010 we had the great opportunity to present The Festival at www.tedxbarcelon.com.

Thanks to the web - TED and its local little sister TEDx have turned into a global phenomenon.  Following the motto “Ideas Worth Spreading” TED offers exposure to innovative ideas in the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design. What started with prestigious annual closed shop events somewhere in Califonia has become an almost omnipresent movement driven by the local TEDx events and a growing online fan community.

In 2009, José Cruset from Barcelona, a great fan of the TED movement, decided to launch TEDx in Barcelona. Lining up with with Alfons Cornella, a renowned local innovator, the first event of its kind in Barcelona took place on December 14 2009.

For the second event on July 7 the two innovators needed more Ideas Worth Spreading. Being also a great supporter of the European idea José pushed The Festival onto the agenda.

Within only two days more than 600 tickets were gone - without advertising! The Telefónica Foundation joined the project and facilitated an incredible venue, the Auditori Axa, and live streaming.

1,600 TED fans followed the event live - both at the event and online - a great success for the organizers.

The entire The Festival team and many of our supporters say THANK YOU to TEDxBarcelona, to José, to Alfons and all the others who made it happen. The fantastic feedback coming from all directions shows us that The Festival is definitely an idea worth spreading.

Thank you TED - Thank you TEDxBarcelona!

And now enjoy the show…

On July 7, 6:20pm, The Festival goes TEDx

We have been granted the magnificient opportunity to present our movement to 680 guests at the upcoming TEDx event in Barcelona.

The 15-20 minute presentation titled “Europe - how to unleash a common spirit” will also be transmitted to the Internet via live stream.

Due to the obligatory local character of TEDx the presentation will be held in Spanish language. After the event though the organizers will publish the speech in YouTube with English subtitles.

My goal is to turn almost four years of passion for Europe into a fun, memorable and engaging presentation. You will hear lots of exciting anecdotes about The Festival. Don’t miss it!

TEDx Barcelona

An upcoming  Bulgarian fashion designer was clearly missing in our list of The Festival Family Members. Now we have one. His name is Argir Kovatliev and we would like to send out a very warm welcome to Sofia.

Our supporter Eddie Mendes hooked us up with Argir and what we’ve seen so far is so promosing! We will hear more from Argir in the future - definitely!

About Argir

Argir Kovatliev was born in late December 1988 at Assenovgrad, Bulgaria. In 2007, he graduated the Vocational College at Plovdiv and is currently studying fashion at the New Bulgarian University. He has been practicing fashion-designing since early college years, having created the first dress at the age of sixteen.

After fruitful collaboration with certain retailers and fashion studios based in Sofia, Argir was invited to contact professional circles on a wider basis. His talent of creating wearable, edgy, minimalist, yet classy women’s garments revealed itself immediately. The beauty of Argir’s works stems from his keen sense of structure, volume and construction. A clear perception of the women’s body architecture is the key. His smart approach to draped fabrics brings the result of dressing the body as a second skin. Serenity and perseverance are two intrinsic qualities that best characterise Argir. Being determined to accomplish his studies at the prestigious ARTESIS HOGESCHOOL of ANTWERPEN (Belgium), Argir aims at working on a global scale.

Click to see Argir’s full mood book… (very cool!)

Contact

argirkovatliev [at] abv.bg

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “The Wisdom of the Sands”
French writer (1900 - 1944)

The harbor came first. Every boat needs a harbor. And our harbor is wild, crazy, full of contradictions: crunchy and posh, polished and slippery, solid and soft, majestic and juicy. A trendy harbor serving all tastes - Berlin!

In 2006 we started to build the ship. First we were a small team. Gifted ship builders. A captain who never gets tired of painting in the brightest colors what lies beyond the horizon. Two tough technical officers who had successfully served on many ship before. The tustworthy treasurer keeping an eye on the numbers. A fully-fledged politician dealing with the harbor administration and international counterparts. An expert in making you buy tickets for this boat trip. And, last but not least, the ship designer.

When the groundwork was done curious eyes would see that we were serious about building this ship. Soon a number of handy craftsmen and technicians joined the project.

Once in a while a harbor representative would drop by and leave with a confirming nod.

Creativity flourishes in limitated space. The construction works had soon swallowed our scarce financial resources. We’ve always had to be creative. With the first prominent guests signing up for the trip we started to look for external funding for the journey.

Then wind came up. The sea turned stormy. Huge waves set free by the global financial crisis smashed against the boat…

The boat stands up to the nature’s caprice. A growing number of travellers and open-minded spirits enter the ship - attracted by top-notch entertainment on board: magic music, stunning art, spectacular sports, and fabulous films, food & fashion - made in Europe!

Today, we have built the boat. We have set the sails. The crew feels solid after all the storms. The Kites are indicating the joyful journey. Travellers and supporters are lining up…

We also invite YOU to join this voyage. It will be a rich, exciting, lifte-time opportunity experience for all. Right now we are warming up the motors of this enormous ship. Our crew is working harder and soon the horns of the boat will give the sign. We will travel to the horizon. Together with YOU we will discover what lies beyond - our shared dream of European togetherness.

We are so excited to have the first Official Ambassador from Sweden on board. Welcome, Gravitonas!

The name of the new band means “hypothetical elementary particles that mediate the force of gravity in the framework of quantum field theory”…… Exactly. But you have to know that Alexander Bard is also a renowned Swedish philosopher. So the name is actually very much Bard. Additionally, in Lithuanian gravitonas means the smallest particle in the universe. Very European, thumbs up!

You can follow Gravitonas (Alexander Bard, Andreas Öhrn, and more to come) on Facebook and on Twitter!

Alexander Bard about The Festival

“I truly believe that this is a project which many have been waiting for without even knowing it. Different people I know approached me telling me about this ‘movement’. That is no coincidence. This project has an engaging spirit because it is pushed forward by idealism. I proposed to The Festival guys to produce a theme song for the movement with Gravitonas. I’m happy to support this project. It is time to meet the other tribe members…”

KITES - The first single

Since April 28 2010 the electro-rock landscape in Europe has a new protagonist: KITES. It’s the first single of Gravitonas. Energetic and uplifting - let’s Kites! You can listen to the song and download the complete album at iTunes or Spotify.

Some opinion about Gravitonas from Scandipop

“For those of you not aware of Gravitonas, it was revealed last year that BWO would be taking a break for a while whilst all three members pursue different projects. And Gravitonas was announced as Alexander Bard’s next musical project. Excitement naturally ensued based on Alexander’s past credentials alone. However, quite a lot his fans were sceptical when it was announced that the band would have a much rockier feel to it than any of his previous musical output. After all, he does synth pop so well, what if we find that his take on rock music just doesn’t appeal as much?

Well thankfully, any concerns that anyone might have had about this are unfounded. The debut single from Gravitonas is as much electro synth as it is rock. But far more important than what genre it belongs to, is the fact that at the heart of it, they’ve got a really great song. It’s called ‘Kites’, and will be released in Sweden at the end of April. It starts off as a haunting atmospheric piano ballad, an electric guitar riff then reveals itself, and then halfway through, a house beat is thrown into the mix. It builds and builds into a crescendo of synth pop rock electro energy that’s subdued just enough so that it doesn’t go into all out dancefloor euphoria.But even more impressive than the music, are the absolute sharp hooks throughout. ‘Kites’ seems to be without a chorus, but it’s not an issue, because each melody used is so catchy and clear. They give the song an irresistable beauty. It’s really quite something.”