Mangalia hosted the Sabantoi International Festival, conceived and realized by the “Tatar Democratic Union”, between September 18th and 20th, at the Neptun Summer Theatre and Turquoise-Venus Beach.
With the Sabantoi project, we try to fill a guilty gap and promote knowledge of the ethnic Turkic and Tatar culture and the different communities living in Romania, because mutual knowledge helps to integrate. Tatar Democratic Union with the support of the Department of Interethnic Relations, Community Aid Association Romania, Directorate of Culture and Sports Mangalia, The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Romania, The Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Romania, Foundation for Local and Regional Development of the South-Eastern Branch, School Sports Club Mangalia, Agigea Sports Club, Silver Samurai Sports Club, Sento School, Medgidia Romi Party Branch, “Osman Gazi” Turkish Association, Balkan Humanitarian Foundation, DUA Cultural-Humanitarian Association and Mehmet Niyazi Cultural Association try to offer their audience through film screenings and traditional interactive games, the opportunity to look at themselves in the mirror, learn about the surrounding reality, build interethnic dialogues. Culture can play a decisive role today as a critical window on the world. This is also why we are very excited to welcome the 2020 edition of the “Sabantoi Festival”.
Sabantoi is in its first edition but the international festival that includes elements of the project is in its fourth edition, therefore, the event promoted by the Democratic Tatar Union was attended by entities from all over the country and internationally (8 countries: Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Netherlands), recognizing the existence of widespread attention and sensitivity around the context of inter-ethnic social inclusion and interculturality. UDT also saw the strong involvement of social promotion associations, partners of the presented project, with a cultural mediation function aimed at promoting the meeting between inter-ethnic artistic-cultural realities and the communities that live in these lands. Mangalia enjoyed two exceptional screenings of the Kazakh Film Festival, part of Sabantoi, “Kazakh Khanate: The Golden Throne” and “The Deep Fountain” both with subtitles and concluded with the games of the third day, seasoned with music, culinary delights and good humor. Sabantoi Festival involved interethnic communities in the world and in Romania, with a special focus on second-generation youth, citizens who are an integral part of the social fabric of our country and who can be the main actors in dialogue processes, mediators of intercultural encounters and “bridges” with the interethnic communities of origin: a series of experiences that, through shows, films, games, demonstrations of historical games and traditional culinary delights, as well as workshops, created ways of meeting different cultural heritages and values.
In a society in continuous evolution, the cultural sector can, in fact, be the occasion and the ground of fundamental experimentation, as art, traditions, sports games and experiences of practice together, sharing forms of artistic work, can help stimulate the encounter with one another, making obedience the protagonist. All the projects are characterized by ways of rapprochement between artists, migrants and citizens who draw the boundaries of a new community.
“Sabantoi Festival” aims to be a repeatable meeting between intercultural activities and human, historical and artistic disciplines, which entertains and reflects on the present and the future, with the precise awareness of our ancient common history.
The event took place in special conditions in the current context of COVID 19 to develop the potential of the cultural processes initiated by UDT, actions and activities considered aimed at working to integrate territorial realities, through relations between inter-ethnic communities, promote practices of intercultural comparison, implement tools that can contribute to the transformation of coexistence and knowledge relations in society, between different generations, communities, between young and old, between natives and ethnic groups, expressing and experimenting with new potential of artistic, cultural and communicative languages.
We express our positive appreciation for the work done, for the interest and commitment that accompanied the event.
The stated aim of achieving this project, which embraces the Turkish and Tatar culture, was to stimulate and define a broad reflection on the cultural affinities of a series of subjects involved for years, also through differentiated and original tools in the field of culture, contemporary life and cultural ethnicities. These affinities enter society as an identity character capable of creating a meeting ground that transcends territorial diversifications, both artistic, urban and social, as well as different geographical locations, to give rise to artistic residences between the area of Dobrogea and some of the most significant associations that dedicate their intercultural work to the tradition of historically recognized "centers" and want to confront them. The project, through a series of detailed activities on each theme of the partners, aims to create a new intercultural stimulus capable of dialoguing, through the planning of film shows, workshops, demonstrations of traditional Turkish and Tartar sports and cultural games, the vocation for contemporaneity of Dobrogea and its province with those parts of the world that today constitute the territories of "knowledge and interethnic coexistence", in search of a land of comparison of possibilities and contradictions, a place where art, culture, traditional sports, traditional food become the instrument of communication, proximity and understanding between people, beyond their geographical, religious, cultural belonging but also beyond their insertion in a "protected" interethnic cultural environment.
The Sabantoi Festival aims to obtain a label reserved for initiatives that contribute to the reflection and dialogue on the value that interethnic cultural heritage has for our society and to show everyone its importance in the different areas of public and private life. A special moment to enjoy our heritage while learning to take care of and preserve it.
A festival that develops together with the public bodies of reference of the territory, covering the entire inter-ethnic Turkish and Tartar cultural universe that, through “Sabantoi”, is embraced in all its genres.
Article published on 12 October 2020 - 11:23
