For three days Matasari Street in Bucharest was closed to road traffic for the 6th edition of an unusual festival.
Having reached its sixth edition, the Women on Matasari Festival this year entertained the people of Bucharest with projects, good music, fashion shows, exhibitions, theatre performances, debates and an overall good vibe.
Iulian Vacarean is the head of the Beneva Association, the organiser of the festival. He gave us more details about this year's edition:
"We had some 20,000 visitors during the three days of the festival. As usual, opening the festival was a fashion show, this year organised by Wilhelmina Arz, Bianca Popp and Alexandra Calafeteanu, jointly with an association supporting the idea that people with disabilities and beauty can go hand in hand. The association brought on stage a person in a wheel chair wearing the dress that competed for the 2015 Miss World beauty contest. Then we also had a lot of good music, theatre performances, artistic events, street performances, concerts given by Akua Naru, Vita de Vie, Coma, Moonlight Breakfast and many other young people with a rich musical experience. The exhibition of hand-made objects, designer clothes and fashion consisted of 60 projects we had selected from a total of 400 enlisted projects. So there was a bit of something to cater for all tastes."
Those who walked alongside Matasari this late May could get a haircut right there, in the street, buy cosmetic products, solar protection creams, garments and designer clothes, or talk to representatives of associations such as Work at Home Mums, Never Alone. A Friend for the Elderly, the Soul Workshop and animal protection associations.
Anton Balint had a green pavilion in the festival, exhibiting decorative glass objects encapsulating a succulent plant on a small platform made of colourful stones. Anton Balint has the details:
"It's the first time we are taking part in the festival, and we were very happy to see so many activities and colours, we felt we belonged here. I think the most important thing about this festival is that you can get to know some really nice people, you can chat around, make friends and make ourselves known".
Liliana Manzat is the coordinator of a volunteer association called Never Alone. A Friend for the Elderly. She told us why the association had chosen to take part in the festival:
"We came to the Women on Matasari: Festival because it seems a good opportunity for people to find out what the association is doing and the fact that they can get involved in helping elderly people who are alone and isolated and to promote our campaign The Grandma's Woolen Scarf launched at the ONGfest; we have lots of scarves knitted by our grandmas - there are around 1000 grandmas in our association - and together with our volunteers who have also learnt to knit, we make these scarves and sell them for a donation of at least 80 lei so that we may carry out as many activities inside the association as possible, from Christmas dinners to holidays and trips."
Magda Coman, president of association Open Your Heart and organiser of an event entitled Atypical Beauty, took part for the first time in the Matasari Festival. She told us that the people there had seemed very enthusiastic:
"Today we are promoting our association, which focuses on the image of disabled people and the event we stage every year but in different cities entitled Atypical Beauty; its next edition, the ninth, will be taking place in Cluj on June 21st. I hope we'll enjoy support from the participants."
Hofmann Rudolf, a veterinarian, is the representative of the first clinic for stray animals in Romania. He came to the festival with several strays, which he had saved from the streets, in order to find owners for them:
"We came here to promote our activity and get support so that we may give animals for adoption. We've already managed to find owners for two dogs and two cats; we are very happy!"
Andrei Botescu, a representative of the Pegas bikes came to the festival with the grand prize for the winner of the women's cross country race, which was run entirely on high heels. The race took place on the first day of the festival:
"There was a high-heel race during the Women on Matasari festival, which this year focused on anti-discrimination. We offered a bike as a prize to the winner of the race because we like to get involved in projects with a positive social impact and we'll always support that. That is also a place where many beautiful cultural activities are taking place."
Iulia Vacarean, the fastest woman on high-heels said she was happy to win the race for the first time and told us about the reasons why she had joined it:
"I took part in the race because I love to run and I took it as a challenge, you know, the race on high-heels. As a rule I run a lot and it was nice to have the support of fans during the race. Today I've been running on 10 centimetres high heels and ended the race way ahead the other competitors. Men ran as well and it was a very nice show."
This year's edition of the festival is over, but the city spirit remains as well as the belief that only together can we change urban life.
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved