Take your kids on a whirlwind tour of Europe’s cultural delights without spending thousands on airfare and accommodations — or even leaving the D.C. metro area.
The Delegation of the European Union to the United States is coordinating the seventh annual Kids Euro Festival, a two-week celebration of European arts and culture featuring more than 100 free events in and around the District. Originally hosted by the French American Cultural Foundation, the festival aims to expose schoolchildren to European culture.
“Initially, there just wasn’t that much being done to reach out to the younger generation with European culture,” said Sandi Auman, cultural affairs officer for the EU Delegation and lead organizer of this year’s event. “It was thought that [the festival] was a great way to reach the children and to expose them to different cultures outside of their own that they might not otherwise experience at all, or to create the interest to learn more, really to nurture their creativity.”
All 28 European embassies participate in the Kids Euro Festival, as well as more than 30 local institutions such as John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Millennium Stage, D.C. and Prince George’s public library systems, Strathmore and the AFI Silver Theatre.
For two weeks the embassies and these institutions come together to transform the city into a European cultural gateway for children ages 2 to 12 and their families.
Children can be delighted by the magic of Belgium, watch Bulgarian folk objects come to life in a puppet show, learn circus arts from Croatian performers, take an opera listening tour with performers from Cyprus, view German children’s films, learn traditional Irish dance or Dutch hip-hop and much more — all for free.
“It’s a combination of public performances and school performances that are for the students and the teachers and the performances at the venues around town,” Ms. Auman said.
D.C. public schools are hosting performances on campus through Washington Performing Arts and the Embassy Adoption Program. Ms. Auman said the D.C. Arts & Humanities Education Collaborative has arranged for students to go to the venues during school hours. About 25 schools are participating, including some in-school performances in Arlington, Virginia.
Libraries in D.C. and Prince George’s County are hosting a variety of festival events, including story times, musical performances, dancing and crafts.
In addition, the French Cultural Embassy is hosting KEEN Day for families of children with special needs on Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Activities will include Bulgarian and Czech puppet shows, Irish arts and crafts, animated films from Luxembourg and Denmark and more.
“There’s a lot of different performers and activities for families of kids with disabilities. Already more than 600 [are] registered,” Ms. Auman said, adding that there is room for more.
All programs are presented in English unless another language is specifically requested by a venue. Reservations are recommended for some programs, and many events already have reached capacity, Ms. Auman said.
“They are all free. We want everyone to have equal opportunity to experience the European entertainers,” she said.
Last year’s festival drew more than 20,000 participants over the course of four weeks. This year’s festival is compressed into two weeks because the event is transitioning to a new organization — the newly formed European-American Cultural Association.
The Kids Euro Festival kicks off Friday and runs through Nov. 9. For more information, or to make reservations, visit KidsEuroFestival.org.
• Jennifer Pompi can be reached at jpompi@washingtontimes.com.
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