For the fourth year, children in D.C. will find the city transformed for their benefit, thanks to the presence of Kids Euro Festival. Through Nov. 10, Kids Euro Festival will present 225 free events in and around the District, providing theater, puppetry, movies, dance, storytelling and magic. The brainchild of Roland Celette, Kids Euro Festival is the largest performing arts festival of its kind in the United States, bringing together the European Union community to turn metro Washington and its surroundings into a European adventure for children and their families.
“When we started, we asked all 27 [European Union] embassies to look for excellent performers from their countries,” Celette said. “We knew that there are a lot of kids who don’t travel. This was a way for us to bring Europe to them. And we wanted to create something new, something fresh for Europe, building something for a new generation.”
| ONSTAGE | |
| Kids Euro Festival | |
| » Where: Various venues | |
| » When: Friday through Nov. 10 | |
| » Info: Free; kidseurofestival.org | |
“There is a great tradition of theater for children in Europe,” added Marie-Helene Zavala, project manager for the festival. “So it’s not difficult to find performers to bring here.” The events are presented in a variety of venues, from the Kennedy Center to the National Gallery of Art and many smaller places. “We couldn’t do the festival without the cooperation of these organizations,” Celette said.
All events are free because Celette was determined to make the festival open to everyone. “This is essential,” he explained, “so that a family with several children can come.”
This year there is a “festival within the festival.” “We have 16 or 17 movies from different European countries,” said Zavala. “They are either dubbed, have surtitles or are cartoons, but they will be easy to understand.”
Some libraries are cooperating with the festival. “The main step was last year when the D. C. Public Library agreed to do workshops in each of its branches,” Zavala said. “This year Prince George’s County has decided to do the same, so we are going to present about 75 workshops, including at the Library of Congress and the Children’s Museum.
“The idea is to pair libraries and embassies and let them do something together. For instance, finding an old tale from a country and then creating an interactive activity around that tale.”
Kids Euro Festival will also provide school performances, artists’ residencies, workshops for teachers, performances for children at the National Institutes of Health and Children’s National Medical Center and performances for grandparents and grandchildren.
“What is magnificent about this festival,” Celette said, “is that we bring people together. People from the embassies, from the American institutions, volunteers, parents, children. Kids Euro Festival has a very nice spirit of international cooperation.”
