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UNICA Festivals: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
UNICA 2005 - THE EXTRAS
Special events included:
- Various gala dinners:
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Koreans teach Dutchman, Ben Teeninga, |
Peter & Mary Rouillard discuss |
Henry Metzger and Christine |
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A half-day excursion by coach to Ypres.
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A half-day excursion by train to Bruges.
| Ypres
The medieval town based on the cloth industry became a supply base and troop centre for both World Wars. The countryside was stripped of trees to serve the military and heavy rains turned it into a sea of mud. Millions of soldiers died in Flanders. To this day each spring and autumn ploughing uncovers more bodies. We were given a guided tour of the centre, the Menin Gate memorial, the cloth hall, even a visit to the council chamber. Amid the beautifully restored town centre is a wonderful, powerful exhibition called In Flanders Field which takes you there, involving all your senses with a wealth of displays, music, involvement, poetry, reminiscences and simulations. Gradually the appalling waste of human life makes its impact. It is too much to take in and we stumbled out before closing time our minds reeling with the horror of it. Then we returned to the Menin Gate for the ceremony of the Last Post. At 8pm every night traffic on this busy road is stopped. There is always a crowd of ex-soldiers, relatives and students of history. On this evening there were also 400 UNICA delegates. |
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A few minutes before the ceremony I
had been whisked from the crowd and asked to say the remembrance.
Volunteer buglers from the town's fire brigade played that haunting fanfare as they have done every night since the memorial was built in 1928. I stepped out under the centre of the arch, aware of 50,000 names around me - allied troops known to have died there but for whom no remains have been found. I recited the fourth verse of Laurence Binyon's poem For The Fallen:
"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. We stood in silence for one minute and I reflected that most of those who were killed would have been in our terms "jeunesse" - people under 25. Then UNICA's President, Max Hänsli, laid a wreath of poppies on the memorial. There was a lovely meal afterwards in the restored medieval Cloth Hall, but I was still in a state of shock and did not make the most of it. |
Bruges
One afternoon we piled into reserved carriages on a train and
headed for that beautiful city, packed with fine art. We split into groups
according to language preference for a tour lead by friendly guides.
Unfortunately this was the one day the UNICA umbrella in
our delegate bags became a necessity. As we strolled the streets and
cruised the canals it was a constant battle trying to keep rain off lenses.
The excellent evening meal was served in a large room but was made riotous by the Korean delegation. As part of their charm offensive to encourage us to visit South Korea where UNICA 2006 will be held their federation president and his team visited every table. He taught us how to toast in the Korean style and then how to indicate in sign language: "I love you." This involved a wide grin, a bow and placing the tips of your fingers on the crown of your head. All this was taught without a word in any European language ... but with huge quantities of laughter.
Then we strolled to a superb new concert hall in the heart of the city. An interior of wood and glass provided a complete sound barrier from the surrounding city and a wonderful acoustic. The performance was by local chamber music group Arco Baleno who started with soothing Mozart, went on to a contemporary piece full of wit and fun - before introducing its composer who was sitting among us. Then with Haydn's Clock Symphony they reminded us to hurry back to the station for the trip back to Blankenberge.
Meetings, meals and Korean vodka
One morning was given over to UNICA's AGM. Many delegates, of course, went off to enjoy the town for a couple of hours while those with responsibilities approved reports, accounts and so on.
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Reg Lancaster and Gerald Mee representing the UK at the AGM |
Me representing the USA at the AGM. |
Mr. Chang and other South Koreans with Suzana Skoludova of Slovakia (striped blouse). |
There is a group called the Friends of UNICA whose meetings and events support the organisation. Their get-together took place in the afternoon under the leadership of Fred Graber from Switzerland.
The 2007 festival will be in Slovakia, so their federation president, Suzana Skoludova, hosted a wine and nibbles reception. You'll hear much more about what they have in store for us in the next year.
The 2006 festival will be in Korea. Special deals are being arranged on travel and hotels - there may still be a chance of joining in if you email UNICA president Max Hänsli on <mhaensli@webshuttle.ch> immediately. Of course you can always come to the event but it may already be too late to enjoy the special prices offered to early bookers. The Koreans presented a movie about the event and accompanying five-day tour of their land. Some of the ladies wore traditional costumes. They handed out lapel badges, books, posters and arranged a big reception with drinks and Korean nibbles. Mr. Chang went round offering people drinks from a large bottle of what looked deceptively like clear lemonade. It turned out to be a rather tasty vodka which was very, very strong. After one sip I had to force myself to put it down or the jury would have had one sleeping member for the rest of the day.
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Korean ladies in their national costume. |
Frenchman Dominique Moris (left) shows Afifa Rouillard (Guernsey), Dave Watterson (UK) and Nina Zaitsev (Russia) round Blankenberge. |
Val Ellis and Betty Jennings signing 'I Love You' in Korean style. |
On Saturday morning the jury all went on stage and had a public discussion about a short list of 70 or so films we had picked from the week's shows. For this session all three official UNICA languages (English, French and German) had simultaneous translation so we were a room full of people in headphones.
What did we choose as our winners? That you can discover along with some pics on the next page ...
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Pictures in these pages mainly by Jan & Dave Watterson, but the good ones are by Bernhard Hausberger / Rolf Leuenberger / Jürgen Richarz / Reg Lancaster.
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