The VIII "Faces of Friends 2007" International Music Festival will take place in the city of Cahul from June 29 to July 3.
The sirector of the Festival, Serghei Orlov, told a press-conference on Wednesday that it was initially conceived as a symposium and concert of music artists from Cahul, Moldova, but it eventually grew to be a major cultural event, a real festival for the whole country as well as a launching track for young artists.
There are expected over 20 contestants to arrive for this year’s edition of the festival, from countries like Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova. For the first time the festival brings together artists from Georgia and Armenia, extending in a way the geographical aspect of the event. According to Orlov, the interest for the Cahul festival, grow more and more, as this year contest got a record number of applications for the Festival – 70.
The first part of the Festival will be dedicated to beginning artists, to young talents and the second part will be dedicated to the concert of “Alternosfera” band, which will present its new album, “Snails”, Olga Tira, an artist that began her music career in this Festival. There will also be several guests from Italy and Georgia. On July 2, in the evening the most famous jazz artists from Moldova and Ukraine will perform in a live concert.
The international jury will include Tatiana Boyeva (Ukraine), composer Dumitru Lupu (Romania), Serghei Izbas and Albert Asadullin (Russia), Rumeana Naceva (Bulgaria), etc.
The awards and prizes of this year’s edition of the festival will be EUR 1000 for the Grand Prix award, EUR 700 – I award, EUR 500 –II award, EUR 300 – III place award. All participants will receive diplomas and memorabilia from festival organisers and sponsors.
The Festival featured performances by renowned artists from many countries, including Zdob si Zdub, O-Zone, Trigon, Cuibul, Graieste Moldoveneste, Dublu Sens, In Quadro, Nelly Ciobanu, Ruslan Taranu, Valeriu Gaina, Edict, Cezara, Ion Suruceanu, Dan Balan, Constantin Moscovici (Moldova), Tatiana Boeva, Productions (Ukraine), Albert Asadulin, Sergey Izbash, Olga Zabuga, Module (Russia), Torstein Sodal (Norway), Ian Raiburg (USA), Ruslan Tsar (France). In 2006 the Grand Prix of the Faces of Friends Festival was awarded to Olga Varvus from Moldova; the first place went to Anastasia Cusnir from Moldova, the second place to Ioana Cranganu from Romania and the third place award went to Lazar Vilcev from Bulgaria.
The main organizers of the event are: the “Festival” Creation Group, and the “Echinox” Creation Group. For the 4th year the general sponsor of the event is Orange Moldova. Among other sponsors of this ear’s edition are the following companies: Argo, Dacia and Baltika. The Cahul local authorities will around contribute MDL 20,000 for organisational costs. This year’s Faces of Friends Festival budget amounts to MDL 500,000.
