Historical development of the European Festivals in Metro-Vancouver

From: rolf brulhart <rbrulhart@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 8:33 PM
Subject: Historical development of the European Festivals in Metro-Vancouver
To: Choir Members

Hi Dubravko,

Your additional contribution to the historical development of the EuroFestBC Society's annual Festivals is appreciated.
Interesting is that the involvement of the Alliance Française de Vancouver (a governmental agencies of France, paid by the French Federal Government similar to the "Goethe Institute in Vancouver) is since many years disipated and that of any local French organization most difficult to introduce.
If you could let us know more about the the " photo documentation in the Alliance Francaise "
, the EuroFestBC Society would be thankful.
Herzlich
Rolf

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CC: Choir Members
From: Dubravko
Subject: Re: Thank you
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:57:02 -0700
To: Miriam Mai

as a historical fact and curiosity item, European festival started as an initiative of former director of Alliance Francaise in Vancouver (Cambie street), and first organization committee was with members of France, Slovak, Check, Dutch and Croatian community (myself included). First meetings were in Hungarian Community hall on Kingsway, and first event was in Alliance Francaise on Cambie street. French had a cello/piano duet, I performed with croatian choir, there was photo exhibit and so forth. we also had a food fair and BBQ there. attendance was some 60-70 people.

this is how it started! I believe there is still a photo documentation in the Alliance Francaise about it.

later i was engaged with other choirs, including  Swiss, and didn't actively participate in organization anymore. This is  ow a grand event, and mostly thanks to some early organizers, like Marika (Slovak) who was pushing boundaries of it every year.

yours sincerely

Dubravko

On 2013-10-18, at 19:30, Mirjam Mai wrote:

Dear all,

 

I would also like to thank all of you for attending the choir AGM and for stepping up for some of these essential positions.

The Vancouver Swiss Choir is an important and very active part of the Swiss Society and basically our only connection to other communities (through guest appearances and concerts) and way to showcase our unique culture to a broad public audience. The success of the choir in the past few years hasn't gone unnoticed and resulted in several invitations as guest choir - this is something to be very proud of. The only way to continue this success story, is for the choir members to take on the responsibility of the choir future and the upcoming events. This is no impossible task and it is great to see that singers have come forward to take on those tasks.

I also wanted to give some additional information regarding the European Festival because I had the feeling that I didn't deliver the message correctly and also had to look into some numbers again.

Yes, there is some payment required to perform at the festival but that should be of no concern to the choir. The SSV has been taking care of this and will continue doing so. The 100 advance tickets that have to be purchased by performers have been traditionally given free of charge to our SSV volunteers and the rest has been sold at a reduced price to Society members. This has never caused a loss in the past and was therefore continued.

The European Festival is a great event to showcase the unique Swiss culture, clothing, food and music to a variety of ethnic groups and since the Festival is constantly growing to an ever increasing audience. This year, for the first time, it has been a 2-day festival and the SSV required a huge number of volunteers to organize our appearance as the first ever Featured Country at the festival. This has been a huge success for the SSV and the Consulate and we are proud of the Youth Group that was mainly involved in the organization of the Swiss Tent activities. We have received many positive comments and we set the expectations for the next featured country pretty high. All of this and also the profit made by the food booth did not cause the Board of the SSV to question the fact that the ticket sale 'only' broke even. Of course, there is always the possibility of selling the tickets at the regular door price ($10 instead of $5) but it has also been the intention of the Society to make those festival tickets available to their members at a cheaper price to encourage them to support our appearance there. By the way, there are never tickets left over - we always sell all of them.

The Board would like to encourage the choir to keep on performing at the European Festival because we view it as a great way to be involved in the European activities in Metrovancouver and to stay in touch with other communities. The SSV has been a major pillar within the EuroFest BC Society that organizes the festival since the beginning 16 years ago.

Please think about the performance again and let me know the final decision in November.

Best regards,

Mirjam

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Marie-Louise Hanna <mhanna18@shaw.ca> wrote:

From: Marie-Louise Hanna <mhanna18@shaw.ca>

Date: October 18, 2013 12:19:44 PM PDT (CA)

To: Melanie Crook

Subject: Thank you

Dear choir members, I would like to thank you for the beautiful flowers, card, the kind words and the generous gift.  

I know that we will pull together to give our choir a renewed lease on life.  As suggested, it seems a bit overwhelming to take on an event to organize but with all the background information this should be  possible and very feasible.  If you have questions regarding any event on our calendar I can give you all the background information.  

I am looking forward to a successful fall season and a Saengerfest with  a strong choir ready to perform at it's best.  

I thank all those who have already come forward and put their name on the chart.  I also thank Melanie and Rolf for their dedication in running a well organized and successful meeting last night.  

Thank you to Maja Elisabeth and Dubravko to put together a wonderful Christmas repertoire.  

Thank you to the Flukigers for the "Quitten" quinces - many households will enjoy this bounty and if anybody makes "Schnapps" with them  I can be a volunteer tester...

Herzlich,

Marie-Louise