Final assessment of the 7th edition of Kolibrí Festivaali

Dear families, we wish to share with you the final assessment of the 7th edition of Kolibrí festivaali  (1-13.10.18)

This year, over 2 000 people participated, amongst them families, volunteers, artists, scientists, storytellers, writers. Once again, Kolibrí was a great fiesta!

The program proposed 35 different activities for all ages: for kids  from 0 to 13 years, for pregnant mothers, parents, and for senior family members. The activities took place in Iso Omena library and in the cultural centres of Malmitalo, Annantalo and Luckan. The exhibition of our guest artist Yara Kono (BR/PT) launched the activities, and the finale was the concert of the wonderful trio “Flores de Nieve” (MX, CO, FI). A brilliant new feature was the visit of the Dutch Theatre Company, Mutante Kunst, and their unipersonal children’s play “Good Morning, Blue”. Among the activities: science, architecture, stories, design, music, dance, a lot of books, fun, games and good company.

We learned a great deal from the feedback we received from the adults, parents, artists and volunteers; it revealed for instance that 98 % gave the festival one of the two highest marks, 70 % (5) and 28 % (4). Their favourite activities were: Music and dance workshops(27 %), graphics workshop (22 %) science workshop (20%) and  theatre (15 %). Of the adult participants: 70 % were born outside Finland, 82 % speak Spanish or Portuguese at home and 75% made new acquaintances during the festival. 81 % found out about Kolibrí through word of mouth; the rest, using search engines or in the social media.

According to the feedback, Kolibrí 2018 was a truly intercultural, plurilingual and familial encounter, attracting not only families mostly of Ibero American  origins, but also families with members from: Ethiopia, Hungary, Korea, North America, Turkey, China, Italy, Somalia, Slovakia, Russia, Sweden and Germany; which means Kolibrí’s audience is really diverse. This is verified by the fact that apart from Finnish, English, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese, 10 other languages could be heard during the festival.

Of course, there is room for some improvements, such as the use of space, diffusion of information and timetables. The volunteers and their “kindness, helpfulness and smiles” deserve a special mention; without them organizing a great fiesta of cultural diversity such as Kolibrí Festival would have been impossible. Once again, we salute them.

Happy Year 2019 to you all; we will meet again 3rd to 15th October 2019!

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