Fiesta WOMAD 2011 en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Casa África once again supports the WOMAD organisation and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's Town Council, in what will be this Festival's 17th Edition, which year after year fills this city with music and culture from around the world.

This year the Fiesta will be squeezed into just one day but without taking away any of the diversity that this festival means for the city year after year.  Casa África will provide the African part of this festival with  musical groups that will act on Parque Santa Catalina's stages, together with an African film cycle that comes from the hand of Cinenómada and a workshop of African percussion aimed at the youngest participants.

The workshop has as its title 'Demonstration and initiation to African instruments: the pumpkin as a sounding board' and will be given by Oli Silva, a native of Guinea Bissau. It is aimed at children of between 10 and 12 years old and will be held at the Sala Blas Cabrera of the Museo Elder.

Taking advantage of the unique framework that WOMAD means for this city, Casa África will use this Fiesta for the public presentation of the website Kuwamba, a portal created by this organisation to make access to bibliographical and documentary contents as well as music through what will be Radio Kuwamba, (uninterrupted African music on line), available to the general public and from anywhere in the world.

Also, and as in previous editions, Casa África will have its own stand at the Parque de Santa Catalina which during the whole WOMAD Fiesta will be open to anybody that wishes to come and find out more about this organisation.

The African Film cycle, with the best films that have passed through the African Film Festival of Tarifa (FCAT 2011), will also be held at the Museo Elder of Science and Technology. This cycle comes from the hand of Cinenómada - a programme created by Al Tarab, in charge of FCAT and sponsored by Casa África.

Casa África sponsors Cinenómada because it has the same objective as Al-Tarab of making African cinema visible to as many Spanish audiences as possible and of brining Africa closer to Spain.

Cinenómada makes available to various entities a large selection of films from past editions of the FCAT, subtitled in Spanish, which is to date the only offering of this dimension and genre that exists in Spain and that guarantees African producers an income, which although modest, is often the only one they receive.

It targets associations, municipalities, regional governments, universities, cultural centers, film libraries, museums and any type of organization or institution that is interested in promoting African cinema. Cinenómada distributes films throughout the year that would otherwise remain only in specialized festivals.