Photo report: couleur CafÉ 2005

mini festival in Copenhagen - African music, food and dance

This slideshow of photos is a photographic report from Couler Café in Fælledparken (København) June 19th 2005. The Couleur Café is not a café, but a free 1-day African mini music-festival. Click on the pictures to enlarge and read more below the slideshow.

All photos © Copyright Jacob Crawfurd. All rights reserved.

Couleur CafÉ in Denmark

The Couleur Café is not actually a café, but the name of a festival with mainly African music celebrated in Denmark, Belgium and other places in Europe. June 19th was the 3rd Couleur Café in Copenhagen celebrated as a one-day festival in the central park "Fælledparken". The Danish version of Couleur Café is still growing into a larger event and this third time it was very successfull. The weather was perfect for a day in the park and people of all ages and colours had come out to enjoy the music and each others company.

Several bands and dance groups performed during the hot day. One of the highlights were Katamanto Highlife Orchestra. The band is always making a good show and people to the dance floor. Katamanto plays the popular Highlife dance music originating from Ghana. (visit their website on www.katamanto.dk). The Kente Dancers opened the festival with their powerful drums and dance act and the Gambian Basiru Suso played his beautiful songs on the Cora, which is an African version of a harp. Musically the day covered everything from the very traditional to popular dance music and hip hop. The closing act and another high point was the performance by Moussa Diallo and his brilliant Kinkéliba group (Mikkel Nordsø, Malick Jagne, Basiru Suso and Klaus Menzer). Also view the photos from Moussa Diallo's Chiware performance in Tivoli 2004.

The fantastic thing about a day with African music is that it really brings everybody to dance and communicate. Small babies ran around having fun while their grandmothers and grandfathers were dancing on the grass. When you needed a break there was plenty of African food and drinks around. The organisers of the Danish Couleur Café has announced that it is a non-commercial event entirely about promoting African music and culture. Well done :-)

Couleur Café is arranged by the organisation Venskabsforeningen Danmark-VestAfrika (VDV) with Lassina Badolo as the anchor man. VDV covers all the Danish-West African NGOs: Venskabsforeningen Danmark-Burkina Faso, Cykler til Senegal, Dapamda, Guidanass, Global Ungdoms Solidaritet, Genvej til Udvikling, Venskabsforeningen Danmark-Mali, International Kontakt, Maisons Familiales Rurales, IBIS, Folkecenteret for Vedvarende Energi, Sen-Teranga, Ghana Ewe Association, Danafrika Kulturklub.

The event was also supported by DCCD, Københavns Kulturfond, VerdensMusik, Integrations Ministeriet and Figaro Vinbar.

Some of the pictures on this page has been published in the magasines:
Djembe - no. 53
the African Courier - No. 46/Vol. 8

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