Burning of a 20’ high ten-headed demon named Ravana
Gala Pageant
World Class Entertainment
Hot multi-course meals of Indian curry
Fireworks
After 34 increasingly successful editions of the India Fest, few people in Utah County are ignorant of the fact that, once a year, you can go to India without spending a lot of money. You can have India right in the middle, of all places, … Spanish Fork!
Over 4,000 people attended last year’s celebration, thanks to the enthusiastic increase of promotional efforts on the part of the organizers, the majestic, overlooking presence of the Krishna temple at the festival site, and a natural amphitheater that can accommodate thousands.
Held at the intersection of 900 South and 900 East in Salt Lake City, the 9th and 9th Street Festival has become an annual event where everyone from the city converges to enjoy food, fun, and music.
This annual showcase includes performances by Ballroom Dance Company, Contemporary Dance Theatre, International Folk Dance, Living Legends, Theatre Ballet, and the Young Ambassadors.
BDSI is a program of the Bountiful Davis Art Center and was started as an art festival in 1974. The distinctive program of international performances was added in 1988. The festival’s roots are grounded in the arts, and it remains a showcase for artists. The international and cultural performances were included to give local residents a unique entertainment and educational experience that stands out as an exciting addition to the community and is unequaled by any other art and cultural program in the state.
This year’s Soldier Hollow Classic’s I.F.A. Country Festival Dog Show offers an assortment of crafts, activities, and demonstrations with dozens of top artisans from throughout the west displaying a wide array of handmade products. Demonstrations will include weaving, spinning, sheep shearing, and pottery making. Navajo Rug Show, sponsored by Adopt-a-Native Elder, features finely woven traditional Navajo textiles and demonstrations by Navajo artisans. Families will also enjoy various animal demonstrations and activities, including duck herding, the Ultimate Canines Flying Dog Show, Wild Wonders Animal Show, and bagpipe performances by the Salt Lake Scots! The Country Festival also features great food and traditional Celtic music.
Holi is the Festival of Colors, a traditional Indian holiday celebrated in our innovative fashion. By far our biggest festival of the year, during Holi, thousands of revelers flood the temple and grounds for a day of brightly colored powder, mantra, music, and a bit of “holi” mayhem.
Flamenco is a style of music and dance which is native to several regions of southern Spain.
Along with its Romani origins, Spanish, Byzantine, Sephardic and Moorish elements have often been cited as influences in the development of flamenco. It has frequently been asserted that these influences coalesced near the end of the reconquista, in the 15th century. The origins of the word flamenco are unclear. It was not recorded until the late 18th century.
Flamenco is popularly depicted as being the music of Andulusian gitanos (gypsies) but historically its roots are in mainstream Andalusian society, in the latter half of the 18th century. Other regions, notably Extremadura and Murcia, have also contributed to the development of flamenco, and many flamenco artists have been born outside the gitano community. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also contributed, as evidenced in the dances of “Ida y Vuelta”.
On November 16, 2010, UNESCO declared Flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Flamenco Today
Traditional flamenco artists never received any formal training: they learned by listening and watching relatives, friends and neighbors. Some artists are still self-taught, but nowadays, it is more usual for dancers and guitarists (and sometimes even singers) to be professionally trained. Some guitarists can even read music and study others styles like classical guitar or jazz, and many dancers take courses in contemporary dance or ballet as well as flamenco.
Flamenco occurs in three settings – the traditional juerga, in small-scale cabaret or concert venues and in the theatre.
The juerga is an informal, spontaneous gitano gathering (rather like a jazz “jam session”). This can include dancing, singing, palmas (hand clapping), or simply pounding in rhythm on an old orange crate or a table. Flamenco, in this context, is organic and dynamic: it adapts to the local talent, instrumentation, and mood of the audience. This context invites comparison with that other creation of a dispossessed class, the blues. Flamenco has been referred to as The Gypsy Blues, or even the European Blues as a means of providing a frame of reference to those new to the genre.
One tradition remains firmly in place: the cantaores(singers) are the heart and soul of the performance. A Peña Flamenca is a meeting place or grouping of Flamenco musicians or artists. There are also “tablaos”, establishments that developed during the 1960s throughout Spain replacing the “café cantante”. The tablaos may have their own company of performers for each show. Many internationally renowned artists have started their careers in “tablaos flamencos”, like the famous singer Miguel Poveda who began in El Cordobés, Barcelona.
The professional concert is more formal. A traditional singing performance has only a singer and one guitar, while a dance concert usually includes two or three guitars, one or more singers (singing in turns, as flamenco cantaors sing solo), and one or more dancers. One of the singers may play the cajon if there is no dedicated cajon player, and all performers will play palmas even if there are dedicated palmeros. The so-called Nuevo Flamenco New flamenco may include flutes or saxophones, piano or other keyboards, or even the bass guitar and the electric guitar. Camarón de la Isla was one artist who popularized this style. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License – Wikipedia
Finally there is the theatrical presentation of flamenco, which uses flamenco technique and music but is closer in presentation to a ballet performance.
Along with its Romani origins, Spanish, Byzantine, Sephardic and Moorish elements have often been cited as influences in the development of flamenco. It has frequently been asserted that these influences coalesced near the end of the reconquista, in the 15th century. The origins of the word flamenco are unclear. It was not recorded until the late 18th century.