SORCE Network festivals in 2006

Belgrade nice start, Pecs first decade

First International Student Week in Belgrade, ISWiB 2006 took place from June 30 till July 5, with the motto "Crossing Borders". Students from all around Europe spent a nice time exchanging experiences and making new personal and professional international contacts. Maribor and Timisoara keep their long tradition, Gristuf had a colourful event and Pecs celebrated 10th anniversary


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


Members of SORCE Network, non-formal network of students and youth festivals around the world, organized five (5) conferences in 2006: Maribor (Slovenia), Timisoara (Romania), Greifswald (Germany), Belgrade (Serbia) and Pecs (Hungary). Belgrade had their first Student week and Hungarians celebrated their 10th Anniversary.

Beside regular events SORCE had two meetings of Org Teams: in March (Maribor) and in May (Greifswald), where all the members, including Trondheim (Norway), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Ilmenau (Germany), Croatia, Poland and Tanzania, discussed the most important topics, exchanged experiences and announced new events. Possibilities for cooperation between young people are very big and SORCE Network is going well and Crossing Borders (ISWiB motto).

Long Tradition after SCIM and ISWinT

First SORCE festival in 2006 was in April - SCIM, Student Conference in Maribor. Most of the participants were from ex-Yugoslavian countries but also from USA, Australia, Latvia and Romania, more than 50 people. Some of them had impressions that SCIM was much better and more professional then the previous year. They say the opening was elegant and special whereas and the workshops and lectures dominated. Otherwise, SCIM is a student conference organised by the Student Organization in Maribor (SOUM). It's their biggest project which can proud itself on being organized for the 11th time.

The 13th edition of International Student Week in Timisoara, ISWinT took place on May 13th-21st and it was structured around two major groups of workshops: the first category was made according to the old fashioned, non-formal education method and the second category had a more artistic flavour. ISWinT is now part of Timisoaras traditions, gathering more and more people worldwide. It is dedicated to the students all over the world and its main idea is to bridge different cultures, ideas and most of all, people. And this began when agroup of students from the Computer Science and Control Engineering Faculty decided to take action.

Colourful Germans

In order to provide a discussion forum about the future of Europe in such decisive times, twenty students in Greifswald planned a European students festival: Project U-Rope - Utopia or Reality?, which took place from May 27 to June 4. Reflecting on the 2006 festival, GrIStuF Board member Katrin Munch says: This year, the festival was smaller than the previous two. Around 200 participants applied to work together on four topics, with three to four workshops per topic. The topics of U-Rope were Informing, Presenting, Connecting and Learning. Each of these topics was focused on the voluntary work of NGOs that actively participate in European territory. Furthermore, it implemented some sort of network which established the connections that all participating organizations found very useful.

The festival week was a colourful event, which brought students together. Moreover, a supporting cultural program involved the citizens of Greifswald. Summing up the hopes of the organizing team, Katrin Munch states that the team is certain that intercultural understanding is the foundation of an emotionally closer connected Europe. Our generation wants to be part of the project Future Europe.

First Belgrade Festival

First International Student Week in Belgrade, ISWiB 2006 took place from June 30 till July 5, 2006 and motto of this year's conference was "Crossing Borders". Students from all around Europe spent a nice time exchanging experiences with collegaues abroad and making new personal and professional international contacts. The most of the participants were from Macedonia, followed by those from Germany, Croatia, Ukraine, Hungary, Denmark, Belarus, Latvia, Poland and Serbia. Foreign participants have been accommodated with their domestic collegaues and friends and all of them were satisfied with the hosts. All the participants said that they would be glad and very happy to participate next year, too.

The organizer of International Student Week in Belgrade, ISWiB 2006 is student and youth organization "World Youth Wave - Serbia". It was founded in Belgrade in October 2005 as a non-governmental and non-profit organization.

- Actually, we are a group of students and young professionals with a mission to give young people a chance to express themselves, their thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and connect them on a global level through projects which promote culture and education - says Nevena Petrović, one of ISWiB 2006 coordinators. - Recognising the fact that the youth sector is the future bearer of stable democratic societies in the region as well as in the world, and realizing that all present and possible future burning issues can be dealt with only through mutual respect, understanding and learning, an idea about fresh and enthusiastic organization was born.

Through three workshops participants have shown their creativity and knowledge. Therefore, Media group was talking about ISWiB motto: Crossing Borders by working on new communications and they presented the results of their work on the blog on the web address: crossingborders-onlinejournalism.blogspot.com. This the place where you can find some of the participants' impressions. Photo Art spent their time walking around and taking photos of Belgrade, its important places and interesting things. Third workshop, Culture & Arts, had a duty to find some locations and make funny pictures. Second day they visited important galleries and museums.

- We want to give a chance to the students and the youth from Serbia and the whole world to meet and share their opinions and attitudes spending great time in the "City of Future of South Europe" - the award that Belgrade got from European institutions some months ago. Our goal is to make this festival traditional event and we plan to organize it on the annual basis, starting from this year. Also we hope to garner support from the official institutions and all possible sponsors in order to realize this project - explains Nevena the plans for the future.

During the first International Student Week in Belgrade there were organized many interesting activities: sightseeing by bus with tourist guide, dinner in bohemian quarter Skadarlija and visit to Nikola Tesla Museum as well as to the restaurants with live music. Participants could swim on Ada Ciganlija river island and had great parties in Belgrade clubs.

Pecs 10th Anniversary

International Culture Week in Pecs, ICWiP celebrated its 10th anniversary in July, 20-30. It has made a long journey through its history, beginning as a small conference in a homely atmosphere created by 40 students who represented 20 countries. Istvan Tarrosy has been holding the guiding light and the vision has been clear: ICWiP shall promote democracy, foster intercultural dialogue and cultural understanding for the betterment of human societies through openness and dialogue among young people. The greatest experiences were the ones that built the community of ICWiP. The 10th anniversary was a celebration for everyone.