What a paradise it is to escape the world of conflicts and to come to an amazing place with beautiful surrounding to perform music! 45 young people from Palestine, Israel, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece and Germany came to Syke and colored it with sounds, passion, love and friendships!
Organizations from these countries were not randomly chosen to be partners of this projects – you might guess, these are all countries with more or less open, political, ethnical or economical conflict, and with music participants of this project created we wanted to send a clear message: there is no way to the peace, peace is the way!
First several days we spent in Syke were dedicated to getting-to-know each other, jamming sessions, making intercultural parties and learning how to play songs originating from each of participating countries! It was great to see (and even better to hear!) young international bands performing beautiful (and most of the time traditional) songs with love, understanding, tolerance…forgetting where this music came from, becoming one with its core – a universal sound that opens everybody´s heart for love and peace!
As so much positive energy was created in small Syke, we decided to share it with other people! This we did not only do through PR and media, but also with close, direct contact with citizens and musicians of Bremen!
On a rainy-sunny-rainy day we visited main streets of Bremen city center and performed music on several locations, familiarizing people with what we did and what the main aim of the project was. Passengers reacted really well and we could see smile, joy and happiness on their faces. Well, on faces of the most of them, some probably needed some time to receive our message that only music can save the world of conflicts!
One night musicians of the project played in an Irish Pub (Paddy`s), close to Bremen Main Station. Audience was amazed, and although it was very noisy in the crowd, a perfect harmony could be seen, both on the stage and around it! For many participants this was the first time to perform live in a band in front of many people, but they did it as if they already had so much experience behind!
Finally, we visited Modern Music School of Bremen and recorded a self-created peace song! All these super dynamic days made everyone inspired, thrilled, amazed, happy, in love, and, consequently – sad and crying due to the end! That is why we decided that this is just the beginning of spreading peace through the music!
This was an amazing experience for both participants and organizers, and we are looking forward to our MAKE MUSIC NOT WAR vol.2! Stay tuned, and until then check out on the following links to see and to hear some parts of MMNW vol. 1!