Women on Matasari Street, reloaded

A cat drawn on a T-shirt, dutifully scratching a vinyl record, under the motto When the Cat is at home!. Another T-shirt displayed a motivational slogan Bee the sun! And, just as expected, there's another such slogan, "Dream Big! painted on a shirt: craft ice-cream, colored cotton candy, Indian, Asian dishes, burgers, home-prepared beverages or cocktails, but also Prosecco, have made, as usual, the regular stuff in the last weekend of May on Matasari Street. A street that, for 11 years now, has been giving the go-ahead for the summer events happening in Bucharest. It changed its meaning and purpose of three decades ago, when it was a drug-trafficking area where street workers were soliciting. That is why the phrase Women on Matasari Street changed its meaning thanks to a genuine urban festival, invented a decade ago. From the very early editions of the event that made it possible for a complete makeover to occur in the area, in people's courtyards on Matasari Street painting workshops were staged, but also tailoring or handmade jewelry workshops. Areas for antiquaries and conferences have been created as well.

Merry people are jostling about on Matasari Street, braving the flippant May weather, with quick spells of rain or brief periods of sunshine, with winds blowing and older or newer participants providing local color to the place. For starters, we spoke to the vice-president of Kola Kariola, an association that brokers the adoption of puppies, Marius Chirca. With datils on that, here is Marius Chirca.

" We've been absent from the events for a couple of years now.  The pandemic prevented us from participating. We mainly came...well...not to raise funds, we turned up to socialize with the people who support us in the online environment, since we have over 400,000 followers and for each such event, we participate in a bid to meet those living close by, in Bucharest, in Ilfov, some even came from outside Bucharest to see us, to have a conversation about certain cases. As on Facebook, on Instagram, where we promote our activity, we cannot just post absolutely everything. We come with promotional articles, we also have puppies for adoption. We work, we don't have weekends, we don't have our days off, as there is no such thing as closing time when it comes to animals and for us that comes as an opportunity, going out, being outdoors, having a bit of fun, we laugh, we crack a joke on and off, 'cause otherwise, there is more like sadness and pain in what we do. That is what we get to see! We have already had contact data from people who want to adopt, tomorrow we bring other puppies to promote them, and if we spend at least two days here, if there is one single dog we send home, that means we haven't been here for nothing. "

At the Festival, Ilinca Andrei can be found behind a stand with bracelets inscribed with Morse code messages.  Here is her story.

" We've got a brand making bracelets, each bracelet has a word written in the Morse code, and on the little card that goes with the bracelet we have the word, in the language we use, but also its transcription in the Morse code, with lines and dots. The idea sprang from the wish to have a bracelet with a personalized message that cannot be accessible to everybody but which can only be known by the person wearing that bracelet. We have explored several possibilities, and the Morse code seemed the most ingenious way to code a message, especially on a bracelet. Clients seem to be most interested in messages from the family area, like mother, father, brother, sister, but there are also words in English that our clients chose, such as  "love", "hug", "hope", "faith", so we sold those very well."

Women and men on stilts were making their way with difficulty on the crowded street, the children tried a more unusual pastime, that of entering a circle and staying "closed" for a few seconds in a balloon of soap. Also for children, we discovered a candle making workshop. There we talked  with Andreea Şerpe, who had a very special stand,  full of cake-looking candles, of shapes and colors that made one think they were in a confectionary.

"I make candles from soy wax, in the shape of sweets. We have all kinds of stand-alone candles, candles in a jar, wax melts for aromatherapy lamps, we use perfumes and ingredients as natural as possible. We also organize workshops for children, we have pots that they can decorate with flowers, with all kinds of fruit, pieces of chocolate, candies (made of wax),  we use cold wax, so that it doesn't burn and everything is safe. I had two or three children who actually bit into the Macarons and they were very upset, they started crying, even though I'd told them they were not edible; they couldn't understand that, but they were very cute! "

Cezar Proca participated in the Festival with natural products for external and internal use, but also with decorations inspired by nature"

"We came to "Women on Matasari" primarily with skin-care products, all organic, therapeutic, based on oils obtained by cold pressing the seeds and organic medicinal plants. We get the oil drop by drop, it is a medicinal product for the skin. We also have plant terrariums, wooden decorations with plant terrariums, wood and ceramic decorations and hand-painted ceramics. The Digestive and the Bitter are drinks obtained from herbs macerated in fruit brandy from Satu Mare, the teas are made of pressed herbs, we can get two liters of tea from one medallion.  The digestive drink helps to calm the nervous system thanks to the mint and lemon balm it contains.  It's very good for digestion, after a rich meal, especially in the evening, it also disinfects the oral cavity and we sleep better.  And the Bitter is the recipe of Dr. Engineer Iuliana Barbu from Farmacia Naturii, a recipe tested for more than 20 years."

At 6:00 p.m., the street became more animated, as every year, with live music, and the spectators enjoyed the experience to the fullest, despite the rain that this year chose to appear from time to time at "Women on Matasari".