Music made them happy, civil society organizations activated the visitors of D-Festival

There was a great movement in the part of D Festival camp, where the tents with the civil society organizations’ representatives were located, from 14 to 16 July 2017. It has been already a third year in a row for Civica Mobilitas to support the participation of civil society organizations at the festival, and this year, with a small action grant as well.

Young people from the camp constantly visited their stands, and participated also in the debates organized by civil society organizations.

Almost every minute there was some of the campers stopping by the Civica Mobilitas stand. They not only took promotional materials and different paraphernalia such as hand fans, frisbees, and balls, which were intended for them, but also they stayed and talked to someone from the Civica Mobilitas program team. Many of them wanted to also talk about their problems and the problems in their surroundings, looking for a way to solve them. Civica Mobilitas team members dedicated the necessary time to each one of them in order to discuss the possibilities for eventual help to the concerned persons.

The interest became even stronger, especially after the presentation of Daniela Stojanova, Civica Mobilitas representative, in the Debate tent, on Saturday at 2 pm. She talked about the support of this program given to the civil sector in Macedonia. Stojanova invited the participants to visit the web site of Civica Mobilitas, especially the address book of civil society organizations, in order to find an organization, they can cooperation with or become its member, for a solution of certain local problems. She encouraged them to organize themselves in informal associations, which are also supported by Civica Mobilitas.

D-muabet (chat)

National Youth Council of Macedonia organized a debate called D-muabet (chat), where Iva Jovanovska from Contact 59 and Gorjan Atanasov from MakeDoks were invited as speakers. At the very beginning, the moderator from the National Youth Forum, Bojan Petrovski, said that they wanted to talk about what the young people need in order to be successful in culture and music. The vocalist of Contact 59, indie-rock and post-punk band, winner of the last “Loser fest”, Iva Jovanovska, talked about the difficulties faced by the band, but also the persistence of the members to create something nice and reach success. Gorjan Atanasov from the Association for Promotion of Documentaries MakeDoks, talked about his own experience as a young person in the world of culture. According to him, a painstaking path should be passed in order to succeed in culture, because it is not sufficiently represented and supported in Macedonia, thus, for the young people there is even a smaller space. Yet, the persistence, sooner or later, will bring results, he said.

Traveling Cinema of MakeDoks

And, when it comes to МakeDoks, by their Traveling Cinema, during the Festival of creative documentary film “MakeDoks”, showed documentary films during the three days of D-Festival, in the church St. Ilia in Old Dojran. This year, eight documentary films with a musical theme were shown. The audience had the opportunity to watch the following documentaries, “My world is upside down” of Petra Seliskar and Brand Ferro, “Searching for Sugar Man” of Malik Bendjelloul, “Waste Land” of Lusy Walker, “Whose is this Song” of Adela Peeva, “Finding Fela” of Alex Gibney, “Martha and Nikki” of Tora Martens, and “Unplugged” of Mladen Kovacevik.

Drugs in context of music festival

The civil society organization HOPS organized an educational workshop “Drugs in the context of music festival”, in order to increase the precautionary measures regarding the use of drugs, both on the user and organizational side. At the beginning, the documentary film, “I am a rebel – The love drug” was presented, and then in an interactive way, the participants were introduced to the most used drugs, new trends of use, and practices to reduce the harms of their use.

“Let’s be honest, use of any drug brings a risk by itself, and that is why they should not be used. Yet, if somehow they are used, the best way to reduce the risks and harmful consequences is the education about the impact, dosing, duration, way of safe use, as well as mixing and interaction with other drugs” – Dr. Davor Smilanov, a facilitator of the workshop said.

Waste – a polluter or a resource

A workshop titled “Waste – a polluter or resource”, organized by Center for Climate Change was held. At the workshop the participants talked about the waste that we create on daily basis, negative impacts to the environment and health of people, the way how we can reduce its creation. Two films were also shown, in order to see the different approach in waste management in Macedonia and in developed countries. The quiz “Eco-millionaire” was left for the end, and the participants with correct answers received free drinks. “The most important of all is that we have received very different opinions about waste and pollution, and we have stimulated young people to think about the consequences of its creation and the way of dealing with these problems in our country”, the representatives of the Center for Climate Change said.

I fail

“If you are interested in the failures of successful people, then you hear this open chat, where you can freely ask your question, hear and learn something from our famous Macedonian celebrities”, this was written in the invitation for the campers to get together with hip-hopper Da Dzaka Nakot, Risto Vrtev, a founder of the legendary Macedonian band Arhangel, and Blagoj Istatov, a former footballer, who did not manage to come. Upon the moderator’s request to tell about some of their failures, Da Dzaka Nakot talked about a performance when he drank so much alcohol, thus when the time to get on the stage came, he could not sing. That made him never to drink alcohol before performance. And, Risto Vrtev talked about that his musical career started in the band Miza, and while he was in the Army, he was thrown out of the band. Yet, it stimulated him to establish the band Arhangel. “I consider myself successful, only when I manage to bring things to the end”, Vrtev said, in addition to other things.

This event was organized by Global Shapers Community.

During the three days of D-Festival, other debates, workshops, and artistic activities were alos organized.