The Helsinki World Village Festival highlights climate issues

Friday, 08 May 2009 13:08

Cultures from all over the world will meet in central Helsinki, Finland, on the 23rd and the 24th of May for a free family festival. The event offers new perspectives on multiculturalism, development cooperation and global issues affecting all of our lives. This year the World Village Festival will host over 100 performances from all over the world, with international music performances especially from South America and Africa.

In 2009, the World Village Festival will be organized for the 10th time and the main topic of the festival is climate. The programme includes performances, art installations and a special theme village concentrating on climate and climate change coordinated by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. The factual programme also includes, for example, a panel discussion with the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, on how Finland is participating in stopping climate change and what measures should be taken for reaching a strong climate agreement at the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009.

In addition to the theme village on climate, the World Village Festival has two other theme villages: the World Shop village and the UN village. Different UN and human rights organizations will present their activities in the UN theme village, coordinated by the UN Association of Finland. This year the theme of the UN village will be reconciliation. The Finnish UNA will be organizing, for example, a reconciliation clinic in the area.

The main organizer of the World Village Festival is the Service Centre for Development Cooperation – KEPA. It is an umbrella organization for over 270 development organizations and NGOs working with development and globalization issues. Other partners participating in the World Village Festival include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland, Metro-magazine, the European Comission Representation in Finland, the European Parliament Information Office in Finland, the City of Helsinki Cultural Office and over 200 Finnish NGOs and tens of businesses.

For more information

The World Village Festival: www.worldvillage.fi

Service Centre for Development Cooperation – KEPA: www.kepa.fi/international