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Where Children Rock
International Children's Festival brings the world's art to children: The dust from the Olympics has barely settled, and once again China -- along with Jordan, Ghana and Finland -- is bringing the best of the best front and center.This time the city is not Beijing, it's Vienna.
This time the stars are not competing in athletic events. Instead, they are competing for the attention of each and every one of the hundreds of children who attend the International Children's Festival at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
This time, if things go as they have in the last 37 years, they will all go home winners.
The event is the brainchild of the Arts Council of Fairfax County and is co-sponsored by the council and Wolf Trap.
Anne Rodriguez, president and CEO of the Arts Council of Fairfax County, said the festival is "the region's premier youth-oriented festival dedicated to performing arts."
She said, "As the president of the arts council, it is our main responsibility. This is our signature event."
The goal is to provide a wide variety of arts and entertainment. The setting is the wide expanse of meadows and woods, with the Filene Center as the jewel in the crown.
"These are young performers of much renown in their own country and we bring them to perform on the stage at Wolf Trap," Rodriguez said.
This year, there will be four stages for nonstop performances both days.
"In addition to that, we have one of the most unique collections of fine arts and crafts for children, with 10 separate tents offering many unique art opportunities for young children," Rodriguez said.
John Mason, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arts Council of Fairfax, talked about the time and the effort that goes into the planning and organizing.
"It's a yearlong exercise," Mason said. "From my view point, it's sort of a perspective of the level of the community as a whole. ... This puts Fairfax on the map as a community that is encouraging children to become familiar with other cultures."
Among the headliners will be the Canadian percussionist group ScrapArtsMusic, whose performances are known for the rhythms, raw energy and athletic choreography.
There will be more than 200 groups from the Washington, D.C., region.
The Henan Youth Arts Performing Troupe from DDE_LINKZhengzhou DDE_LINK, China, will be onstage.
In addition to the fine arts and crafts tents, there will be a technology pavilion and an instrument petting zoo.
More than 700 volunteers contribute more than 3,500 volunteer hours.
The man coordinating all of this is Scott Friday, festival director for the council.
"As the director of the festival, my main responsibility is to book the acts," Friday said. "This includes any international entertainers we bring in for the weekend, as well as local performers -- not only the weekend festival, performances for gala and the weekday school shows as well."
The goal, Friday continued, is to find four groups from four different parts of the globe.
"We try to get different groups different years -- Africa or South America, Europe, the Far East, North America -- and what we try to do is have a kind of a mix," Friday said. "We have a list of favorites that we've had over the years, and we mix them in with new groups."
The festival's Web site is one of the main sources. Performers who are interested send an application and performance video.
"If it's something I can't fit in one year, I can use them another year," Friday said.
Another source is the embassies in Washington and the cultural attaches.
"We've established some nice relationships with local embassies in Washington," Friday said.
But there are rough spots in the process.
"The toughest thing is that I will get a number of groups that will e-mail and call me, but the one thing that they have to be aware of is that they have to raise their own airfare and go through the visa process. Sometimes they are unable to do it, or they have to put if off until they can do some fundraising. Some have state support, some don't. Once they get that airfare, the festival takes care of room and board and ground transportation," Friday explained.
This year, the list was narrowed down to about a dozen to 15 groups, Friday said.
"Another exciting thing is that the local groups are something we've really been focusing on in the past years -- giving local kids an opportunity to perform at Wolf Trap," Friday said. "They get a chance to perform and interact. In this area, we have performers from so many different cultures, that it's easy to find groups to come out and perform."
Perhaps Rodriquez put it the most succinctly:
"It's a festival for family, it's a festival for fun and it's a festival for celebrating the arts. In fact, our tag line is ‘Connecting Culture through the Arts.'"
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com
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