Little Needle Girl (Croatia) |
From our friends at the Kids Euro Festival...
Free Events Throughout Metro Area Turn Region Into a European Cultural Playground
Kids Euro Festival - the highly popular annual children’s performing arts festival - returns to the Washington area October 24 to November 9, with over 100 free, family-friendly, European-themed events.
Designed for children aged two through twelve and their families, Kids Euro Festival, now in its seventh year, unites the 28 embassies of the European Union (EU) and over 20 American cultural institutions, such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Millennium Stage, DC Public Library, Strathmore, Smithsonian’s Discovery Theatre, PG County Center for the Visual and Performing Arts and AFI Silver Theatre. All of the embassies and organizations work together to transform the capital region into a Europe-inspired action-packed cultural adventure for young people and their families, with no passport required.
Miniland (Spain) |
"I look forward to the annual Kids Euro Festival that offers children and their families a unique opportunity to experience some of Europe's best performers right at home,” said Ambassador João Vale de Almeida, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. “As a joint cultural diplomacy initiative of the EU embassies in Washington, it's also a wonderful celebration of European cultural diversity. This year, I am particularly happy to welcome the European-American Cultural Foundation's stewardship of the festival."
Aha Fun with Science (Estonia) |
Kids Euro Festival artists include many of Europe’s most talented performers for children in diverse and imaginative live shows of puppetry, dance, music, theater, storytelling, and more. Among the events are weekday shows and workshops at public and private schools, professional development opportunities for teachers in cooperation with DC Public Schools, performances at Children’s National Medical Center and the Children’s Inn at NIH, and a day of performances for differently-abled children. Weekend programs offer performances, films, and reading workshops that showcase favorite stories from several EU nations.
Thump Thump (Bulgaria) |
Participating in Kids Euro Festival are the Embassies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Kids Euro Festival is made possible by the generous support of Susan Carmel Lehrman and the assistance of the newly established European-American Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the EU Delegation to the United States.
While all of the performances are free, some performances require reservations, which can be made at the Kids Euro Festival website: www.kidseurofestival.org. A 2014 schedule will be available later this month.