The Festival will be centered on an outdoor concert stage with a spectacular view in front of Hakodate Mountain, and also incorporate numerous smaller scale performances and workshops at "Fringe" events around the town. See 2008 Photo Gallery.

2009 will mark Hakodate's 150th anniversary.  WMDF will honour this by looking not just at the past, but also by encouraging a long view of the future: "150 years past, 150 years forward". Music and dance are excellent models for this kind of "Long Now" view of the world, since they link us to past histories and ideas whilst at the same time providing a model for how ideas and culture can become the heritage of future generations.

We would like to invite you to participate in this Festival. Especially, we are looking to recruit performers that can help us appreciate connections with the past, glimpse the possibilities of the future, and understand our own significance to the present.

The people of Hakodate are looking forward to welcoming you to our town, to making your stay a memorable one, and to your performances.

   Ian Frank, Chairman of WMDF.

   Naoto Soga, Director of WMDF.

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Event Name:  2009 World Music and Dance Festival, Hakodate "Kokusai Minzoku Geijutsu Sai"

Web site:  http://wmdf.org

Place and Country: Hakodate, Japan

Date: Aug 06 (arrival) - Aug 15 (departure), 2009

Audience: About 30,000

Organization: Committee of the World Music and Dance Festival

Chairman: Ian Frank

Director: Naoto Soga

Production: Hitococohi, Inc.

   06 am/pm: Participants arrival

   07 pm: Workshop, evening Reception

   08 pm: Workshop, evening: Festival performance (outdoor theater)

   09 pm: Fringe performance and/or Performance at a school

        evening: Festival performance (outdoor theater)

   10 pm: Sightseeing, evening: Party

   11 pm: Workshop, evening: Festival performance (outdoor theater)

   12 pm: Workshop, evening: Festival performance (outdoor theater)

   13 pm: Festival performance (Indoor theater)

   14 pm: Sightseeing, evening: Party

   15 am/pm: Participants departure

* Festival Performances: 10, 20, or 30 min.

* Fringe Performances: 10-20 min.

* Workshop (for elementary school kids and public): 60 min.

Note: Festival performances bring together many overseas groups to perform at an outdoor stage (weather permitting) in front of a large audience. Our experience from 2008 was that some local people will attend several (or even all) the Festival performances. We hope that visiting groups can accomodate this by preparing Festival sets with some variation.

Fringe performances spread the news of the Festival to different locations around our area, and will typically feature just two overseas groups, plus two local groups.

* Play live music (not tapes, CDs, etc.)

* Perform with up to 15 people (or 25 people for groups including dancers)

* Wherever possible, be in attendance for the entire Festival period

Note: During your performance and/or stay, it is likely that you may be accompanied by television or print media reporters. Reasonable cooperation with these reporting activities, and the agreement to allow footage, images, and interviews to be used in TV broadcasts, and for publicity and advertisement of the WMDF, are assumed to be a condition of participation at the Festival.

* The stage has a frontage of 10.8m and a depth of 9.0m.

* We have 8 Shure 58 microphones (or equivalent) with boom stands, and monitor speakers for performers.

* Basic lighting (RGB) equipment.

* There are no special effects on stage.

* Free meals and accommodations

* Transport in Hakodate (from/to Hakodate airport, and between the stages and accomodations)

* General event insurance and first aid

* Provisions to support the selling of goods, CDs, etc at all events

* Cover transport to/from Hakodate (our first recommendation), or Aomori/Sapporo Chitose (second recommendation).

* Ensure current medical insurance

* Pay own visa application fees

Note: We recommend that participants use Korean Airlines for the most convenient flight to Hakodate or Aomori (for instance, we can negotiate with Korean airlines to accomodate greater luggage allowances).

* A DVD or DVD-R with performances (sorry, not DVD-RW)

* A CD or CD-R for promotion

* Some original photos (reproduction quality)

* A description of the group, the group's name, street address, representative/director's name, telephone number, and e-mail.

* A list of festivals previously participated in

Note: Should your group's application be accepted by the Committee, the supplied information and materials will be used by WMDF for posters, fliers, TV broadcast, and other promotion.

Please send these promotional materials until Friday December 12 (please confirm by e-mail to wmdf@wmdf.org when you send us a package by post). Or, if you would like to participate but need more time to collect these materials, please discuss with us by email. 

 c/o Hitococochi, Inc.

 52-1 Jinkawa-cho, Hakodate-shi, Hokkaido 041-0833 JAPAN

 Phone: +81-138-51-5727 (apologies, but Japanese only)

 Fax: +81-138-51-6465

Note: We are sorry but since our office cannot guarantee telephone interaction in a language other than Japanese, we request you put your correspondence in fax or email.

The success of this festival was due to the efforts of all the artists and to the hard work and determination of all the staff. We deeply appreciate their contributions, as well as the support that we received from our corporate and shimin sponsors.  

The performers from Indonesia returned to Indonesia on August 25th, and the performers from Korea, Taiwan, Niue, and Bulgaria departed on August 26th by bus, JR, and airplane.  We were all reluctant to say goodbye, but we hope to see each other again.

For two out of four days the "free stage" in Motomachi park was rained out, so on these days we relocated to the "Chiiki koryu machi zukuri center".  Even indoors, many people came to watch and we could see an impressive stage.  On August 22nd, about 2,000 people came to Motomachi Park, and could enjoy the atmospheric outdoor stage, with the famous Hakodate night view in one direction, and the floodlit Old Public Hall and Hakodate mountain in the other.

The final, indoor, Sunset Performance was attended by about 1,200 people. The lineup featured all the overseas performers who took part in our Festival, and there was a special atmosphere. We would have liked for all to see the celebrations that took place on the stage after the curtain closed.  All were celebrating together: there was a genuine feeling of unity among people from all around the world.

In addition to the main stages, the fringe events in the folklore performing arts summit were attended by about 300 people at each site. It was a good opportunity for WMDF event to spread its message around the whole city, and also for people to actually touch the traditional clothes and musical instruments from other countries in a more intimate environment.

Other events such as the workshops run with each group were well attended.  Especially, children came to the workshops in large numbers and took away unique experiences. The expressions on the faces of these children was a special reqard for the performers and organisers.

Through many other activites such as the panel exhibition, school visits, and tours and activities with the performers, we could spread the opportunity to broaden horizons and to enjoy folkloric performing arts.  Our goal was to bring the world to our small beautiful city and we have enjoyed producing our first success.

This festival was supported by far too many people for us to list here: we hope that all those who gave of their time and energy have been rewarded by new ideas, experiences, connections, and friendships.

 

The organising committee would like to express their sincere thanks to all those who became invloved, in however small a way.  Through the involvement of our friends and partners, we will strive to host a bigger and even more successful event next year!

The start time will also change slightly, from 6:00pm to 6:30pm.

The start time will also change slightly, from 6:00pm to 6:30pm.

The new venue will allow you to experience the performances from up-close, so we encourage you to attend. The weather forecast suggests that we will be able to start the outdoor free stages from Thurs.

Volunteers should be over 18 years old (sorry, but we cannot accomodate high school students), for this unpaid work. If you are interested, please come to the meeting below, or call the music office "Hitococochi"  at 0138-51-5727.

[The eighth staff meeting]

Date: 6th, August (Wednesday) 7pm~

Place: Hakodate Community Design Center ("Machi-Zukuri Center") 3 Floor Meeting room.

(4-19 Suehiro-cho) 

O Participants: Festival staff and those who would like to become involved.

O Subject: Confirmation of roles, and preparation for actual Festival.

Those not living in Hakodate may find it difficult to buy a "Sponsor Pass", and yet still want to secure a seat in advance for this final event.  For these people, we have prepared a one day ticket for this event that can be bought at Lawson. 

The Lawson ticket L code is L-15206. Tickets can be bought at any Lawson store, and also online at 「LAWSON TICKET.com」

This one day ticket gives admission to the Sunset Performance, but does not confer the other benefits of the Sponsor Pass. If you live in Hakodate or the neighborhood, we recommend buying a Sponsor Pass, which is the same price as the one day ticket.  

We hope to see you at the Festival.

The World Music and Dance Festival Organising Committee is seeking occasional volunteers to help us with the running of the festival.

Our meetings are quite informal and enjoyable. Last time, we toured the concert site, did greetings at the residences close to the site, and then worked on details and schedules. We also practised Indonesian, Bulgarian, Korean, Ukranian, and Niuean.

Would you like to get involved in this event? There are many opportunities for experience, including:

The main volunteer activities will be promotion, selling of sponsor passes, event staff, and artist liaison. We are sorry, but we can only accomodate volunteers of senior high school age or above.

Anyone with an interest in becoming part of our team is very welcome to attend directly the next meeting, or to call the organising office at Hitococochi Inc (0138-51-5727）. We are looking forward to sharing our event with many townspeople.

［7th Staff Meeting］

Time：7/24（Thu） 19:00-

Place：Hakodate "Machi tsukuri" Center, 3F meeting room（Suehiro-cho 4-19）

Attendees：WMDF volunteers, and any others with an interest

Main agenda：Confirmation of role allocation and schedule for event. Overall coordination.