EFFECTS ON THE LOCAL AREA
Hostility to hospitality
When we speak of effects we always think of the positive, even though it’s obvious that when a chain of festive events arrives „out of nowhere” to a small village, it will cause inconveniencies to the locals. A popular view tends to be „what do these metropolitans want here?” – a cautious and moderate interest. The order of things is changed for five days, only to leave a mess for about a week afterwards. Let’s spare a moment to think of the old man whose house’s window opens to the yard that we just introduced as a perfect concert ground, and which became one of the centers of the festival this year. Concerts till dawn, The Durgas, Pál „The Bacon” István and his band from Ukraine, musicians from Morocco and India…
But this has been the seventh such summer, and our old man’s hostility has since been turned into hospitality. So much so, that the mediawave team has even made a short documentary about him, which revealed the fact that this old little man living in the middle of nowhere, at the edge of a little village used to be our country’s minister of agriculture.
The pace might have differed, but the same progress took place in all three villages.
Contemplative curiosity – true interest – participation in the programmes and the work – full indentification with the festival. In 2011, the later was true for all three locations. There are two main reasons for that: on one hand, true interest arouse in the locals, and secondly, they realised their own interests. Interest and being interested were the main guidelines that led them into taking part in everything from work to enjoyment.
Intellectual-moral-economical unison
By the fourth year it has become clear to all parties involved that this festival is beneficial to the area. Benefit is usually interpreted as a financial term: „it brings profit, so it’s beneficial”. But while this statement is correct in terms of Ördögkatlan and the area, we like to give the word „beneficial” a more complex and profound meaning: interpret it as the union of intellectual-moral and economical benefits. This is coincidentally also the only way in which it is sensible to talk about the future.
Let’s see some examples: beautiful concersts have been given this summer at the freshly renovated Genevan church of Kisharsány. The very same church that was in such bad condition, that no one could enter it for years. (The whole truth is, Alexander Balanescu, London dweller Romanian violinist dared inside to hold a workshop, but shunned as soon as the ceiling began to fall..) Well, the mayor of Kisharsány, took the initiative and tried to win a European Union tender, inspired by, as he himself stated, the festival. He prevailed.
Now that the festival team made a ran-down, yet beautiful barnhouse and its courtyard useable again, it is only natural to keep applying till he prevails in making the house a feature-farm.
There are numerous examples of how the leaders of these settlements come to the revelation, and gather the courage to take leadership and stop waiting for the merciful help of others. This is an intellectual and moral recovery. The realization and undertaking of the sentence that the three naive characters say by Morzek in „The Party” (as played in Bárka and Bárka Dock) „we aren’t any worse kinds either!”. Pride, poise, personal growth - this is what we would like to stand for with our festival, and we can only do that if we don’t only provide programs, but also create a community through them, of which we are also a part of, ourselves. The local volunteers who reluctanty and helplessly fumbled with the dispatching of the hundreds to thousands of strange newcomers and invasive vehicles in the beginning, are today handling their tasks with assertiveness and confidence that would humble even professionals.
It might sound conceited, but the fact is, we bring openness and serenity to the area for five days, not through principles, but through people. People are never good or bad, we have the potential for both. The aim of Ördögkatlan is to provide circumstances under which people can show their better, nicer sides to each other. These are the circumstances that describe a celebration. Tibor Kiss, one of the most popular Hungarian rockstars, paints the legend of the devil on the walls of the Museum of Geographical History of Nagyharsány with his artist-friends. Visitors come and go - one of them, a local gypsy borrows his guitar, sits in the corner, and starts playing. A still-life from Ördögkatlan. Lacika, a ten-year-old little gypsy boy sits through every show with undivided attention, calls all the actors by their names. Renáta,
an eight-year-old gypsy girl helps János Háy, one of the most significant contemporary Hungarian authors to paint the goblins. Parno Grast, the Hungarian gypsy band performing at Palkonya, and the mayor are watching mesmerised as 15-20 romas dance happily amongst the crowd. They are from Nagyharsány, a local friend tells us. It turns out it was the first time they have ever gone over to the neighbouring village, about 15 kilometers from their own...
Part of the intellectual-moral recovery is also the financial profit: profit for the village-community, and some volunteering locals. We want and expect the local-governments to financially support the organizing of the festival. This is a so called "question of principle": we have to give in order to receive. Because we provide opportunity for the invested capital to multiply its benefits for the area. All the local catering-trades and all the stallage of the campers goes to the local-government, not to mention the multiple thousands of guest-nights of the performers and the visitors, which incomes go to the local pensions and the senior locals who put their rooms up for rent during this time of the year. It is revailing what a Nagyharsány store-owner said: "We make as much profit in these five days, as the rest of the year altogether."
Directly, or indirectly, but Ördögkatlan played a role in the renovation of the Palkonya farmhouse and playground, the forementioned Kisharsány church, barn, and yard.
When we speak of effects we always think of the positive, even though it’s obvious that when a chain of festive events arrives „out of nowhere” to a small village, it will cause inconveniencies to the locals. A popular view tends to be „what do these metropolitans want here?” – a cautious and moderate interest. The order of things is changed for five days, only to leave a mess for about a week afterwards. Let’s spare a moment to think of the old man whose house’s window opens to the yard that we just introduced as a perfect concert ground, and which became one of the centers of the festival this year. Concerts till dawn, The Durgas, Pál „The Bacon” István and his band from Ukraine, musicians from Morocco and India…
But this has been the seventh such summer, and our old man’s hostility has since been turned into hospitality. So much so, that the mediawave team has even made a short documentary about him, which revealed the fact that this old little man living in the middle of nowhere, at the edge of a little village used to be our country’s minister of agriculture.
The pace might have differed, but the same progress took place in all three villages.
Contemplative curiosity – true interest – participation in the programmes and the work – full indentification with the festival. In 2011, the later was true for all three locations. There are two main reasons for that: on one hand, true interest arouse in the locals, and secondly, they realised their own interests. Interest and being interested were the main guidelines that led them into taking part in everything from work to enjoyment.
Intellectual-moral-economical unison
By the fourth year it has become clear to all parties involved that this festival is beneficial to the area. Benefit is usually interpreted as a financial term: „it brings profit, so it’s beneficial”. But while this statement is correct in terms of Ördögkatlan and the area, we like to give the word „beneficial” a more complex and profound meaning: interpret it as the union of intellectual-moral and economical benefits. This is coincidentally also the only way in which it is sensible to talk about the future.
Let’s see some examples: beautiful concersts have been given this summer at the freshly renovated Genevan church of Kisharsány. The very same church that was in such bad condition, that no one could enter it for years. (The whole truth is, Alexander Balanescu, London dweller Romanian violinist dared inside to hold a workshop, but shunned as soon as the ceiling began to fall..) Well, the mayor of Kisharsány, took the initiative and tried to win a European Union tender, inspired by, as he himself stated, the festival. He prevailed.
Now that the festival team made a ran-down, yet beautiful barnhouse and its courtyard useable again, it is only natural to keep applying till he prevails in making the house a feature-farm.
There are numerous examples of how the leaders of these settlements come to the revelation, and gather the courage to take leadership and stop waiting for the merciful help of others. This is an intellectual and moral recovery. The realization and undertaking of the sentence that the three naive characters say by Morzek in „The Party” (as played in Bárka and Bárka Dock) „we aren’t any worse kinds either!”. Pride, poise, personal growth - this is what we would like to stand for with our festival, and we can only do that if we don’t only provide programs, but also create a community through them, of which we are also a part of, ourselves. The local volunteers who reluctanty and helplessly fumbled with the dispatching of the hundreds to thousands of strange newcomers and invasive vehicles in the beginning, are today handling their tasks with assertiveness and confidence that would humble even professionals.
It might sound conceited, but the fact is, we bring openness and serenity to the area for five days, not through principles, but through people. People are never good or bad, we have the potential for both. The aim of Ördögkatlan is to provide circumstances under which people can show their better, nicer sides to each other. These are the circumstances that describe a celebration. Tibor Kiss, one of the most popular Hungarian rockstars, paints the legend of the devil on the walls of the Museum of Geographical History of Nagyharsány with his artist-friends. Visitors come and go - one of them, a local gypsy borrows his guitar, sits in the corner, and starts playing. A still-life from Ördögkatlan. Lacika, a ten-year-old little gypsy boy sits through every show with undivided attention, calls all the actors by their names. Renáta,
an eight-year-old gypsy girl helps János Háy, one of the most significant contemporary Hungarian authors to paint the goblins. Parno Grast, the Hungarian gypsy band performing at Palkonya, and the mayor are watching mesmerised as 15-20 romas dance happily amongst the crowd. They are from Nagyharsány, a local friend tells us. It turns out it was the first time they have ever gone over to the neighbouring village, about 15 kilometers from their own...
Part of the intellectual-moral recovery is also the financial profit: profit for the village-community, and some volunteering locals. We want and expect the local-governments to financially support the organizing of the festival. This is a so called "question of principle": we have to give in order to receive. Because we provide opportunity for the invested capital to multiply its benefits for the area. All the local catering-trades and all the stallage of the campers goes to the local-government, not to mention the multiple thousands of guest-nights of the performers and the visitors, which incomes go to the local pensions and the senior locals who put their rooms up for rent during this time of the year. It is revailing what a Nagyharsány store-owner said: "We make as much profit in these five days, as the rest of the year altogether."
Directly, or indirectly, but Ördögkatlan played a role in the renovation of the Palkonya farmhouse and playground, the forementioned Kisharsány church, barn, and yard.