A cocktail of culture in Warsaw

The 2006 Warsaw Crossroad of Cultures Festival will host guests of over 30 nationalities from all over the world, keeping Ryszard Kapuœciński's words - "Other worlds and other cultures are the mirrors through which we and our culture look at ourselves" - as its motto. The festival has five thematic modules: music, music workshops, theater, film and literature and its anthropology. The first concerts will start on September 9 and the event will last till September 17.

"We want the Crossroad of Cultures to take place in the eyes of the viewers or listeners. We didn't want to organize a festival with Bulgarians playing on Friday and the French on Sunday. We wanted to see this crossroad on stage," says the director of the festival, Jacek Gintowt. "For example, in a music project called 'A Bridge over the Ural', we will have 14 musicians, each from a different culture, with their own instruments typical of their countries."

Thus, viewers will be able to watch Katsura Kan, a Japanese dancer, performing together with a Polish band playing traditional music from the Podlasie region, or listen to 'kosher gospel' created and sung by Joshua Nelson. The organizers have also invited Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, the famous Maori soprano, Michael Nyman, a British composer, with his band, and Tony Gatlif, a film director, actor, musician and composer.

Admission is free to all events apart from Kiri Te Kanawa's and Michael Nyman's performances.

For more info 022-8487865

www.festival.warszawa.pl