Festival Mundial is a multicultural festival with a difference. Bands, dance troupes and NGO's take over a park in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg for a fusion of good works and good vibes. But it's not just fun. Research by the University of Tilburg shows that Mundial has a positive impact on raising awareness about development issues and getting people motivated.
"Our goal is to increase respect for each others cultures all over the world," says Harry Oosterman, Financial Director of Mundial Productions.
"We want to keep up the support for development aid, and we are doing that in a positive way. When it comes to the third world, we always see the bad news – hunger, war, corruption - but that's only 5% of the news, there are so many other positive things. I think we can learn a lot from other countries on the level of culture, social life and that kind of thing."
Significant Impact
What started 15 years ago as a small world music festival and has now become the biggest event of its kind in Europe, an indication of Mundial's success. Of the 145,000 people who attended the closing weekend many were exposed to the various NGOs who set up their stalls to publicise their causes and latest campaigns. Gerard van de Groot, who carried out the research for the University of Tiburg, says that people leave not only with a greater understanding of the cultures and development issues, but also with a willingness to get actively involved.
"When people are willing to get into certain problems," says Gerard, "when they devote time and energy and familiarize themselves with certain problems, that's much more important than giving 25 euros and saying; well that's it for the rest of the year."
Changing Attitude
The organisers of Mundial are naturally pleased with the outcome of the research but, says Harry Oosterman, it isn't new information for them. "It's easy when visitors get information in a nice way, you see their attitude changing. If you meet people from other parts of the world in an atmosphere of celebrations, with music and good food, something is growing."
Preaching to the Converted
The survey says Mundial's mixture of music and messages, dancing and development issues has a positive impact on festival goers. But isn't it the case that the kind of people who come to a festival like this are more open to other cultures, and are more knowledgeable about development issues anyway? Not according to Gerard van de Groot:
"That has been a discussion in the 80's at the start of the festival, but our research shows that it's simply not the case. A wide variety of people come to Mundial, not only from Tilburg, but from all over The Netherlands, and even from Belgium. Of course they have some awareness, people are motivated to come here, but that could be because they like the music, because they like the food, a wide variety of reasons, and not because they have some kind of political affiliation, and they feel that they should be here because that's the way to express their support to oppressed people in the world."
Transcending Political Barriers
One example of exactly the kind of co-operation and exchanging of cultures that Mundial promotes is a dance troupe from Ghana called Noyam. They have joined forces with a group of Dutch dancers to produce a spectacular show. Nii Yartey is the project director and choreographer, and he was enthusiastic about the experience.
"What you get on stage was just the artistic level. But what has happened is an incredible thing. I think it transcends political barriers. Two groups of young people get together and then immediately colour has no meaning, geographical location has no meaning. It's only humanity. And that carried the production right through from the beginning. It's such a good vibration - the cohesion of souls and spirits and people."
Capitalising on the Success
So how can Gerard van de Groot and Mundial capitalise on the research and the success of the festival? Gerard van de Groot explains that "it's important for voluntary organisations in The Netherlands to show the government that they have an impact on the support for development co-operation. In that respect it's very practical for them to be able to prove by academic analysis that they meet certain targets.
But what we also do is to help organisations identify what they can reasonably expect from the kind of activities they organise."
Harry Oosterman is optimistic too. "The idea of Festival Mundial is growing in the world, we have visitors from Burkino Faso, who enjoyed it so much they want to do this in their own country. Last year we were asked by people from Kenya to do the same - start a festival in Kenya. We said, 'No, not us. You have to do it.' So in that way it's growing. This is the 15th anniversary, but I expect we'll continue for many years. That would be great!"
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Tags: Festival Mundial, Harry Oosterman, Tilburg