Africajarc

AFricajarc was a huge success this year.  Saturday night the official number of people in the concert was 4,200.  They estimate some 20,000 people were in town over the weekend for the festival.  

Great People watching.

Africajarc - Friday

Each year I am still amazed that this event happens in our little village.   Jim is filming the concert - I dont' know if I'll get around to edit the footage.  I start an on line writing class August 3rd and a friend is coming on the 9th, so will be busy for the next month.   

Here are a few photos from Friday:

Main concert area.

Salon de Tea

Nester, from Burkina faso, is showing his photo montages in our second house.

The simple story on our second house is, we bought it to fix up - because that is what we do for a living.   And since we knew we were happy living in France, we decided to invest in a second French property.   We are still in the process of fixing the house up.  

In the mean time we let friends stay there and for the past two years have hosted art shows for Africajarc on the ground floor.  

Nester.  I discovered when I was in Fiji, it is not that easy to photograph black people.   

The Night Bar begins when the concerts end at 2:30 - 3 am and it goes all night. Last year I had the most fun Saturday night at the night bar.  But it's a commitment, I was too wiped out the next day to enjoy anything.

Street theater

The water front.

Jaco, originaly from Cameron, with his French wife, Virginie.

Cristal

Africajarc '09

Africajarc is a major African music and cultural festival in our little French village. Africajarc happens annually, the last weekend of July and lasts 4 days.

Main stage area.

Since I couldn't speak any french, I first worked on the decoration committee making art to decorate the town.   This is one of my paintings.

I then made three films.   Check out Africajarc 05, on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkUVV9jJIEY

Now Jim and I host an art show and offer housing for two participating artists with their partners. 

Wednesday night, before the festival began, we took some artists, their partners and kids to our favorite restaurant, L'Olio. 

Sara, in the middle, just finished her university studies in sustainable agriculture in third world countries.  She did some of her work in Burkina faso, where she met, Nestor, sitting at the end of the table.   Nestor is showing his photo collages in our house.  Meeting people and making friends is a big part of why we stay involved.  

I decided that Africajarc qualifies as an 'Adventure of the Romahome' because we parked the Romahome in the parking lot designated for the volunteers, next to the Night Bar, which is being set up in this photo. (More on the Night Bar later.)  This way we can take naps, have extra sweaters, stash the camera, stock the frig with cold drinks and not be running back and forth to our house.  

This event is only possible because of the efforts of over 200 volunteers.

The whole town gets involved. 

Christine and her daughter, Clare, run the salon de tea.

This is our 7th year working as volunteers for Africajarc.  It feels like old home week, as familiar faces return to Cajarc to set up the main stage.

One thing Jim and I find amazing is, even though over ten thousand people will be in town over the weekend, there are only three extra toilets - all located inside a main concert area which has a holding capacity of 3,500.  It's not unusual that the main concert on Saturday night attracts a capacity crowd.

This year they installed a special men's urinal that is, I'm told, the new thing for concerts.  

 Yes - garbage cans!  This is France meets Africa.

As my friend Suzette commented when I posted this on facebook, "What are the women supposed to do, squat in the woods?"  Well..... I'm not sure what most women do, but personally I make sure I wear a long skirt with no panties, because there are no woods. 

Kids relaxing during the day on the waterfront.

I'll be blogging for the next three days.  Keep checking in.