Having reached its sixth edition, the Women on Matasari
\nFestival this year entertained the people of Bucharest with projects, good
\nmusic, fashion shows, exhibitions, theatre performances, debates and an overall
\ngood vibe. <\/p>\n
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Iulian Vacarean
\nis the head of the Beneva Association, the organiser of the festival. He gave
\nus more details about this year’s edition:<\/p>\n
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We had some 20,000 visitors during the three days of the
\nfestival. As usual, opening the festival was a fashion show, this year
\norganised by Wilhelmina Arz, Bianca Popp and Alexandra Calafeteanu, jointly
\nwith an association supporting the idea that people with disabilities and
\nbeauty can go hand in hand. The association brought on stage a person in a
\nwheel chair wearing the dress that competed for the 2015 Miss World beauty
\ncontest. Then we also had a lot of good music, theatre performances, artistic
\nevents, street performances, concerts given by Akua Naru, Vita de Vie, Coma,
\nMoonlight Breakfast and many other young people with a rich musical experience.
\nThe exhibition of hand-made objects, designer clothes and fashion consisted of
\n60 projects we had selected from a total of 400 enlisted projects. So there was
\na bit of something to cater for all tastes.<\/p>\n
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Those who walked
\nalongside Matasari this late May could get a haircut right there, in the
\nstreet, buy cosmetic products, solar protection creams, garments and designer
\nclothes, or talk to representatives of associations such as Work at Home Mums,
\nNever Alone. A Friend for the Elderly, the Soul Workshop and animal protection
\nassociations. <\/p>\n
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Anton Balint had
\na green pavilion in the festival, exhibiting decorative glass objects encapsulating
\na succulent plant on a small platform made of colourful stones. Anton Balint
\nhas the details: <\/p>\n
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It’s the first time we are taking part in the festival,
\nand we were very happy to see so many activities and colours, we felt we
\nbelonged here. I think the most important thing about this festival is that you
\ncan get to know some really nice people, you can chat around, make friends and
\nmake ourselves known. <\/p>\n
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Liliana Manzat
\nis the coordinator of a volunteer association called Never Alone. A Friend for
\nthe Elderly. She told us why the association had chosen to take part in the
\nfestival:<\/p>\n
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We came to the Women on
\nMatasari: Festival because it seems a good opportunity for people to find out
\nwhat the association is doing and the fact that they can get involved in
\nhelping elderly people who are alone and isolated and to promote our campaign
\nThe Grandma’s Woolen Scarf launched at the ONGfest; we have lots of scarves
\nknitted by our grandmas – there are around 1000 grandmas in our association -
\nand together with our volunteers who have also learnt to knit, we make these
\nscarves and sell them for a donation of at least 80 lei so that we may carry
\nout as many activities inside the association as possible, from Christmas
\ndinners to holidays and trips.<\/p>\n
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Magda Coman, president of
\nassociation Open Your Heart and organiser of an event entitled Atypical Beauty,
\ntook part for the first time in the Matasari Festival. She told us that the
\npeople there had seemed very enthusiastic:<\/p>\n
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Today we are promoting our association, which focuses on the image of
\ndisabled people and the event we stage every year but in different cities
\nentitled Atypical Beauty; its next edition, the ninth, will be taking place in
\nCluj on June 21st. I hope we’ll enjoy support from the participants. <\/p>\n
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Hofmann Rudolf, a veterinarian, is the representative of the first clinic
\nfor stray animals in Romania. He came to the festival with several strays,
\nwhich he had saved from the streets, in order to find owners for them: <\/p>\n
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We came here to promote our activity and get support so that we may
\ngive animals for adoption. We’ve already managed to find owners for two dogs
\nand two cats; we are very happy!<\/p>\n
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Andrei Botescu, a representative of the Pegas bikes came to the festival
\nwith the grand prize for the winner of the women’s cross country race, which
\nwas run entirely on high heels. The race took place on the first day of the
\nfestival:<\/p>\n
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There was a high-heel race during the Women on Matasari festival,
\nwhich this year focused on anti-discrimination. We offered a bike as a prize to
\nthe winner of the race because we like to get involved in projects with a
\npositive social impact and we’ll always support that. That is also a place
\nwhere many beautiful cultural activities are taking place. <\/p>\n
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Iulia Vacarean, the fastest
\nwoman on high-heels said she was happy to win the race for the first time and
\ntold us about the reasons why she had joined it: <\/p>\n
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I took part in the race because I love to run and I took it as a
\nchallenge, you know, the race on high-heels. As a rule I run a lot and it was
\nnice to have the support of fans during the race. Today I’ve been running on 10
\ncentimetres high heels and ended the race way ahead the other competitors. Men
\nran as well and it was a very nice show.<\/p>\n
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This year’s edition of the festival is over, but the city spirit remains
\nas well as the belief that only together can we change urban life. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For three days Matasari Street in Bucharest was closed to road traffic for the 6th edition of an unusual festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":135303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[43114],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-135302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-women-on-matasari"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n