The beginning of July marked several milestones for Nektarina - ending first twelve months as a 10:10 hub and beginning our ECI Youth Forums. Is there a better way to celebrate, then at a great festival?
During our March visit to Romania, we met with Romanian musician and artist Zoli Toth, who is Earth Hour Ambassador for Romania, and we discussed ways and possibilities to work together on raising awareness on climate change and environmental issues across Romania.
Zoli was kind enough to invite us to participate at the B'EstFest Festival . BestFest is a music festival taking place annually in Bucharest, Romania. The first edition was scheduled in July 2007, at the Romexpo, lasted 3 days and had an audience of almost 50,000 people.
It was a great opportunity to meet young people from Romania, chat with them, raise awareness on climate change issues and deliver our message - every one of us can help fight climate change by changing just one thing : start recycling, use energy efficient light bulbs instead of the ordinary ones, consider carpooling, take the bicycle instead of a car, opt for train instead of a plane, eat less red meat... so many options and ways to do the positive thing toward the environment.
Music festivals have always been a great venue for raising awareness on issues and important topics. The use of music to support a message or raise money has always been around, and everyone would agree that music can be a powerful medium.
B'EstFest Festival was also a great way for us to promote our 10:10 Teen Project and to engage our great volunteers organized by our Romanian friend Catalina Neagu. Here is what she wrote after the three-day event:
Dear readers,
My name is Catalina and I was the 10:10 hub agent for Romania during Best Fest in Bucharest this July. Although I must admit that I do not know much about rock music, this was truly one amazing experience.
First of all, we had a handful of NGOs that shared with us their experiences, whether they had recycling programs for SMEs, or art projects for young people. We also enjoyed the presence of a very famous Romanian rower- Ivan Patzaichin (a quadruple Olympic winner) that supports sustainable development in the Danube Delta. And then we also had a small team of volunteers that gave out 10:10 flyers and stickers at the festival.
Who did we listen to? SKUNK ANANSIE, TOULOUSE LAUTREC, ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION, HOUSE OF PAIN – just to name a few. So as you may have already guessed, we rocked the city for 3 days in a very green way.
Check out the full set of photos here.
Best from Romania,
Catalina
