EU Community Joins Together To Present Second Annual Kids Euro Festival

October 15 – November 10, 2009

A Celebration of European Arts and Culture for Kids

WASHINGTON, DC (August 4, 2009) — Following last year’s successful launch, one of the country’s largest performing arts festivals for children – Kids Euro Festival – returns this fall to present more than 150 free events in and around Washington, D.C., from October 15 through November 10.  

Kids Euro Festival will feature talented European children’s entertainers from almost every performance genre.  Opera for children, improvisational storytelling, puppeteers, dancers, and acrobats are just a few of the exciting performances scheduled during almost four weeks of artistic adventures, with no passport required.

Designed for children ages four through twelve, Kids Euro Festival is being staged once again through the cooperation of the 27 European Union embassies in Washington and more than twenty major local cultural institutions.

The free public performances will take place at family-friendly Washington venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Millennium Stage, Shakespeare Theatre, Strathmore Mansion, Atlas Performing Arts Center, National Geographic, THEARC, Discovery Theatre, the Library of Congress, National Children’s Museum, the National Gallery of Art, Washington Ballet, The Goethe-Institut, House of Sweden, The Austrian Forum, and La Maison Française.  Screenings of European children’s films and reading workshops presenting favorite European children’s stories will round out a month of diverse and imaginative cultural journeys.  (Some performances require reservations, which can be made at the Kids Euro Festival website: www.kidseurofestival.org.)  A schedule of performances will be online soon.

In addition to the public performances, Kids Euro Festival will bring presentations and performances to hospitals, as well as to public and private schools.

The Kids Euro Festival web site (www.kidseurofestival.org) will serve as a fun and educational resource before, during, and after the festival, with content that not only promotes the festival itself, but also introduces users — including teachers searching for materials to supplement their classroom curriculums — to the artistic and cultural traditions of the 27 EU member states.

“It is always striking how inspired children are by culture, and the honesty and directness of their responses,” says Jonas Hafström, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States.  “The rights of children to all forms of culture need to be ensured.  I am therefore very pleased that, during Sweden’s Presidency of the European Union, we will once again celebrate the Kids Euro Festival here in Washington.  It is such a wonderful way to bring together European and American entertainers, children and families in a joyful celebration of the arts.”

Participating in Kids Euro Festival are the Embassies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

In addition to the venues and embassies listed above, Kids Euro Festival is also presented in collaboration with National Children’s Medical Center, The Children’s Inn at NIH, Smithsonian Associates, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, National Geographic Live, Washington Performing Arts Society, The Avalon Theater, Theater on the Run, Imagination Stage, Public Playhouse, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, The French-American Cultural Foundation, DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and DC Public Schools.

For information on specific performances and schedules, contact (202) 944-6558.