Popular Music Festivals in Europe 2010 by Kieron Tyler
Ads in the back of the British music press inevitably include entreaties to sign up for festivals like Paris' Rock En Seine, Denmark's Roskilde or the Netherland's Pink Pop. With lower ticket prices than the UK equivalents, these are attractive options for mixing travel with music. But bands increasingly schedule...>>

UK winner in European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs)
UK songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Winston (Hobo), from Cornwall, is among the winners of the 2010 European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs). The winners received their awards on Thursday 14 January in Groningen, the Netherlands, in a televised show presented by Jools Holland. >>

Essen, Pécs and Istanbul: European capitals of culture 2010
Three European cities are set to kick off a year-long culture fest featuring exhibitions, music and theatre. The cities chosen to be this year's European capitals of culture are Essen and the Ruhr region of Germany, Pécs in southern Hungary and Istanbul in Turkey. Taking over from Linz (Austria) and Vilnius (Lithuania)...>>

The Ice Wall Goeth
An 11.5 ft Ice Wall art installation, opposite the German Embassy in Belgrave Square, was the backdrop for the start of celebrations on 9 November for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ministers for Europe and Culture Chris Bryant and Ben Bradshaw, together with the German Ambassador Georg Boomgaarden... >>

Europe's Historical Walls by Lorenzo Bellettini
They may not be as famous, old or long as the Great Wall of China, but many great historical walls of breathtaking beauty can still be found across Europe today. What was once the result of military necessity and local political hubris has now become a place of universal cultural importance for the outstanding testimony... >>

Young Artists Take the Stage by David Damant
To paraphrase the old song, the fortunes of opera swing like the pendulum do. At the moment it can be said with confidence that we are living in a golden age, not only of opera conductors (Pappano at the Royal Opera House, Gardner at ENO and Jurowski at Glyndebourne) but also the proliferation of houses... >>

Unique light show
EUNIC London (European Union National Institutes for Culture) - with the support of the European Commission Representation in the UK present an exhibition, entitled In Praise of Shadows, featuring new European lighting curated by Jane Withers from 19 Sept - 17 Oct as part of the London Design Festival at the V&A. >>

closEUp
An exhibition charting ten years of the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates opens at the Royal College of Art on 25th September. In the European context, this programme of engagement between new design graduates and industry must be unique. Where else could you find an Irish designer working with an Austrian furniture... >>

Rebuilding Balkan Heritage by John Bold
The Council of Europe was indebted to the London office of the European Commission for hosting recently a meeting of members of a multi-national project involved in its Regional Programme for Cultural and Natural Heritage in South East Europe. The protection and rehabilitation of the built heritage is not regarded as... >>

Open House London by Steve Fallon
Victoria Thornton's passion for architecture unlocked hundreds of doors to buildings normally shut tight to the public when she founded Open House London in 1992. Since then, the annual architectural event in September has grown by leaps and bounds, with more than 700 participating buildings attracting 380,000... >>

Cambridge, a European University by Jonathon Brown
The fun old proud nonsense persists. I was brought up on this one: "An Oxford man enters a room as if he owns it, a Cambridge man as if he doesn't give a damn who owns it." Oh yes, and Trinity College can claim more Nobel prize winners than France. And so on, with a chortle. Now it's Happy 800th Birthday, Cambridge University. >>

European Alternatives by Chiara Cordelli
Some people think of Europe as a static and empty idea and see the European Union as a bureaucratic elephant whose democratic legitimacy is threatened by the absence of a pan-European civil society. But is progressive and innovative thinking about the "Old" continent and the creation of...>>

Contacting European Dance by Lucy May Constantini
I am recently back from ecite09 and congratulating myself on my relative dearth of bruises. Contact Improvisation can be a robust physical experience, but the seventy-seven other dancers I encountered at the European Contact Improvisation Teachers' Exchange 2009 in Lancashire last week were a skilled enough... >>

Welcome to Out of the Gate
Two months ago, thanks to the EU's Youth in Action Programme, I invited a group of wannabe scriptwriters from different parts of London to create an online audio drama for a young audience. Our aim was to highlight the problems faced by a young offender leaving prison who's determined to change his ways for the better. >>

Digital Britain by Albena Dimitrova
If you didn't know already that the Internet is everywhere, a recent forum on the Digital Britain Report would have brushed any lingering doubts away. Experts from a range of sectors - media technocrats and practitioners, advertising professionals and videogame producers - were all buzzing with ideas about the... >>

Vilnius: the cultured heart of Europe by Jonathon Brown
Wits say that the colours of the Italian flag represent tomato, mozzarella and rucola; as for the Lithuanians, they say that the colours of their flag, adopted only in 1918 - namely yellow, green and red - represent sun, light and prosperity; or nature, freedom and hope...>>

Aldeburgh's European Connections by Henrietta Bredin
The Aldeburgh Festival, founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in 1948, has something quintessentially English about it, with its uniquely beautiful setting in huge 19th-century barley malthouses amid rustling reed beds on the Suffolk coast. From the very beginning, however... >>

The future of the internet and social networking in Europe
by Peter Beckett
Have any of you been living the life of a hermit for the last six or seven years? If yes, I ask you to recall the internet as it was before you dropped out: there were websites that... >>


Events: Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
June has been declared GRTHM and in response Southwark Council has produced Pavee Widden: Travellers Talking, written and illustrated by Slovenian artist Eva Sajovic who recently showed her work at the 12 Star Gallery. >>


Opera Europa by Henrietta Bredin
9 May 2009 saw opera houses all over Europe opening their doors to anyone who cared to sample what they had to offer, from backstage tours and glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes to open rehearsals, talks and masterclasses. Nicholas Payne, director of Opera Europa, is the man behind this initiative >>

Songs for Europe by Elizabeth Holt
When you've worked for Europe for nearly 30 years as I have, there's a wide variety of Europe Day celebrations to look back on. Nothing has ever delighted me as much as the Europe Day concert given by the young stars of the European Opera Centre and European Union Youth Orchestra in St. John's, Smith Square >>

Just for the record: Europe's Mecca for vinyl fans
by Kieron Tyler
Arriving by train in Utrecht on a sunny April morning, you notice little that's unusual. The train station is large and modern, airy even. There's a good supply of those typical Dutch fast food places with little glass windows that, on sticking a coin in the slot >>

"El Sistema" imported into Europe
The Venezuelan wonder program El Sistema has created quite a stir among European cultural operators in recent times and rightfully so. Since 1975, the Venezuelan National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs (FESNOJIV) has provided free musical education to over half a million children. >>

European Carnivals by Peter Beckett
If dancing on the street and watching weird and wonderful floats pass by for days on end is your idea of a great way to spend a short break, then you should probably visit one of Europe's many carnivals. These take place throughout the year, and are a great way of exploring a multitude of cultures and having a great time. >>

Blue-eyed sheikhs by Lucy Lethbridge
What with white-water rafting holidays, swimming among Great White Sharks, and luxury cruises to the Antarctic, you might think that, as a generation, the travellers of the early twenty-first century would call themselves adventurous. But we are a lily-livered lot compared to the travellers of the past. >>

European Rock Festivals in '09 by Peter Beckett
Every year, hundreds of thousands of revellers descend on fields, parks, beaches and castles all over Europe to sleep in tents, shower in glorified baked bean tins and listen to some of the best known and most talented artists on the planet do their thing on stage in front of enormous audiences. >>

Grand Book Tour by Lorenzo Bellettini
At the heart of European capitals - from Portugal to France, the Netherlands and Britain - there are magic places where time stops still. Tucked away from bustling bestselling bookstore chains and hectic online commerce, small independent bookshops are still thriving and offer a special charm. ...>>

EU Funded Icons by Lorenzo Bellettini
We might wonder what docklands, flourmills and clay pits have in common. The answer is: 'cultural potential'. This may not be obvious to everyone, but it certainly was to the European Union when it opted to support renovation plans which would change derelict landscapes to thriving cultural destinations...>>

Flat-Earth: Map-Making in Europe by Jonathon Brown
Were you taught that those pre-historic images of bison in the caves were the first 'art', the first pictures? I was. Yet it is plausible that they were created not so much in the same instinct as a Picasso, as 'works of art', a far-fetched term to apply all those thousands of years ago, but more as a means of organising... >>

Brussels Beckons by Peter Beckett
With opportunities for both studying and political internships in the Belgian capital, I found myself signing up for an exchange year there in 2006/7. The "welcome week" for foreign students at l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, the main French speaking university in the city, was run by grizzled finalists, who viewed the experience as....>>

Surfing the waves by Lucy Hannah
In the early days of underground radio in the 1960's, Mike Pasternak, a.k.a. DJ Emperor Rosko, was a pioneer in pirate radio in Europe, broadcasting from a boat off the shores of England. He is known as "Kaiser Rosko" in Germany, and "Le President" in France. In September 2005 Rosko added Spain to his portfolio... >>

Making and making anew by Andrew Hammond
With the new year comes a New Year. We have moved from Inter-cultural Dialogue to Creativity and Innovation. Or, to spell that out in full, whereas 2008 was the European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue, 2009 is designated European Year of Creativity and Innovation - EYCI2009. >>

Exhibitions around Europe: What not to miss in 2009
There's been a lot of speculation recently about what's likely to happen to the sponsorship of exhibitions in this bleak new era of the credit crunch. While corporations and foundations may well have less to spend on supporting the arts in the longer term, this year there don't seem to be obvious gaps in exhibition programmes...>>

Paris Calling by Andrew Hammond
The capacity of performing arts ensembles to amaze and confound is quite legendary in France, and adds hugely to the gaiety of the nation. Comedic and tragic are interwoven with often mesmerising skill and complexity. There is lightness of touch and the touching of the deepest raw emotion, sometimes almost simultaneously... >>

Haydn: Seek and Ye Shall Find by Jonathon Brown
Papa Haydn, as he was known, father of the symphony, father of the string quartet, father of the piano trio, godfather of the musical mafia established by Sonata Form as the prime mover of serious musical thought in the western world, was also in his way the father of Bing Crosby and Madonna... >>

Pick of the year's European theatre festivals by Peter Beckett
If your idea of a festival headliner is more Shakespeare than Chaka Khan, then Europe is full of theatre festivals. From classic plays in a Roman Amphitheatre to the sprawling mass that is the Edinburgh festival, there are events to suit all tastes.After asking around, we have listed some of the best for the coming year.... >>

The fate of books by Lorenzo Bellettini
"Habent sua fata libelli," as the Latin adage goes, originally referring to the unpredictability of a book's success and mostly used nowadays for the unpredictable changes of hands in the life of a book. The vicissitudes and destination of individual texts, autographs, private libraries and archives may at times ... >>

Text and the City by M. Beatrice Fazi
"Urban culture", my encyclopaedia reads, "is the culture of cities." Cities all over the world - past, present and future - have social patterns, cultural behaviours and economic structures that distinguish them from rural areas. These structural and symbolical operations we exchange with the urban environment shape ... >>

Plaques: Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)
Mazzini was a political revolutionary and one of the most influential among the prophets of democratic nationalism. He was born in Genoa and died in Pisa but spent a large part of his life in exile in London. Whilst living in exile in Marseilles in 1831 he organized a new political society called La giovine Italia (Young Italy). ... >>

Whom do we think we are?
by Gillian Tindall
This event, with its slightly distracting echo of a successful television series, was designed to explore the topic of identity with two British writers each of whom has an extra personal dimension. Marina Lewycka, who was born in a refugee camp after World War II... >>

Thanks to or despite: the Clatter of Nomenclature
by Jonathon Brown
The European Forum for the Arts and Heritage was formed in 1992 and in recent years its General Assemblies have concentrated - in Helsinki - on Intercultural Dialogue and - in Warsaw - questions of democracy and sustainable development. >>

European Hip Hop by Peter Beckett
Some consider rap and hip hop an evil we imported from the United States. But it has been this side of the Atlantic since the late 1970s - the result of musical influences from Africa brought by immigrants combined with the commercialisation of American rappers in Europe. >>

Globe-alisation by Lorenzo Bellettini
When Oscar Wilde famously stated that Britain and America have everything in common except language, he could not predict that "everything" could one day also include Shakespeare's quintessentially British Globe Theatre. Nor could he foresee that a true Globe mania would affect as many and different countries... >>

Stained glass and tainted light by Jonathon Brown
Are you one of millions, I suppose, who has started to be much more satisfied with their photography, since digital replaced roll film? One whose off-hand images of friends and family and fields and far-away places now have a sheen that sings in a way old snaps never did? Ah, then you are in a long tradition... >>

Celebrating the unexpected by Lucy Lethbridge
Despite occupying an impressive 200,000 square feet (eight acres) of white tenting, the Frieze Art Fair, which opens in Regent's Park this month, is not the world's largest art fair - but it is certainly the hippest. Unlike any other international art fair, Frieze concentrates solely on living, contemporary artists... >>

Escaping Babel by Andrew Hammond
In one weekend at London's powerhouse cultural campus, the Southbank Centre, the most amazing variety of dance events will tumble across each other. This is dancEUnion, an imaginative collaboration between the EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) and the Centre, with the support of the European Commission Representation in the UK. >>

Reflections from a bridge upon a lake by Jonathon Brown
For centuries the notion 'Chinese' has stood for more or less complete mystery and even now as we see and learn more and more of this still so closed a country, the metaphor stays apt enough as the fascination never releases. Likely as not you have a tea-cup of pure Chinoiserie, or enjoy fireworks.... >>

Lost for words by Lucy Lethbridge
The world's languages are disappearing almost as fast as the insects of the rainforest. Tens of thousands of rich lexicons that evolved in areas isolated by mountains, valleys, seas or rivers, are now laid waste by the mighty bulldozer of American English, the new lingua franca of globalisation. >>

Twitching for Beginners: a European Guide by Lucy Hannah
Ian Fleming named his most famous character after the ornithologist, James Bond. Theodore Roosevelt did it, former president Jimmy Carter does it, Mike Tyson has a collection of rock pigeons, and the author, Jonathan Franzen is an enthusiast.... >>


Culture Shock! Hungary review by Caroline Boyle
Whenever we debate Europe in the UK, or Britain's relations with Europe, it is remarkable how often this turns out to be just a discussion about ourselves, our own psychology and relationship to our past with little or no interest in the other countries or cultures of the European Union...>>

In tune with Europe
La Banda Europa is an extraordinary orchestra of 35 virtuoso musicians all of whom play ethnic instruments indigenous to their own European country of origin. Hurdy‐gurdies from France and Hungary, nyckelharpas from Sweden, Armenian duduks, Serbian brass, Turkish drums, the bagpipes of six nations and more. >>

Punch or Pulcinella
On May 21 1662, Charles the Second married Catherine of Braganza. In the run up to this great celebration hundreds of entertainers and street merchants made their way to London in expectation of great crowds. Among them was an Italian puppeteer who introduced to Britain the figure of Mr Punch or "Pulcinella". >>

Watch This Space 2008 by Heather Neill
In late Spring, theatregoers and visitors strolling along London's South Bank were surprised to discover that an outdoor drawing-room had suddenly appeared beside the main entrance to the National Theatre. Just in time for the May Bank Holiday, the carpet of grass - a familiar summer addition to Theatre Square... >>

Waxing lyrical: Madame Tussaud
Born Marie Grosholz in Strasbourg, her life reads like the plot of a modern day musical. Taking her wax modelling skills through revolution, imprisonment, travelling salesmanship and brilliant PR she came to be among the most famous of English institutions and one of our top tourist attractions...>>

Tapping the drum's edge: some reflections on the African influence on European arts by Jonathon Brown
Pages have been written and more ink than there is water in the Nile has been spent on how vital a part African culture - the use of 'culture' in the singular is already an error, of course, for a continent covering a fifth of the Earth's surface...>>

Extreme sports in Europe by Lucy Hannah
'There are only three real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games' wrote Ernest Hemingway. While previous generations were burdened with global wars and the threat of world destruction, recent generations in Europe have lived through a relatively peaceful era... >>

The shock of the old: the EU Baroque Orchestra by Andrew Hammond
There are still curmudgeons in the critical fraternity (note the gender) who think that catgut strings were better employed when still in the cat. Gut strings don't, of course, originate in cats, but the gag still has a life; if only because... >>

Pictures of Time and Place by Nick Wadley
Anyone encountering Hubert Wurth's art for the first time in this exhibition has chanced on an eventful moment to do so. Although they reflect a very visible continuity in his work through thirty years or so of making images, the six works shown here are quite different from anything he has exhibited as a group before. >>

The Festivity of Opera in Europe by Jonathon Brown
When I wrote on Wine Festivals I reported how a friend had said that wine is a festival in itself; well, I shall take his remark over to opera, even more so. I always dress up a bit for the opera; it seems to me to part of the surreal treat of the evening to feel festive in the face of such celebration. >>

Eurostargrazing: eating fodder afield by Lucy Lethbridge
There have been stirrings of a new spirit in Europe. People are beginning to rediscover the pleasures of their own local foods and produce and think of new ways in which they can celebrate them. And if they are lucky enough to live in a place which has never forgotten the importance of its food traditions... >>

Mixed Media: Map of London
As part of the educational work that accompanied last year's European Union documentary festival Voyages, four pairs of student film makers left the French Institute on journeys around London. Each pair headed for a random half-kilometer square of the London A-Z map to make a film in a day... >>

Common Language - A Celebration of European Cinema
In an exceptional collaboration to mark this European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, City Screen Picturehouse Cinemas and the European Commission Representation in the UK will host a week of Premieres and preview screenings of films from all over Europe.
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Organised Shouting: the European Opera Centre in Liverpool
by Andrew Hammond
Only a certified lunatic would start an opera company; or, indeed, work for one. Watch the 1991 film 'Meeting Venus' and you will see why. This was the film in which Glenn Close plays an international diva. >>

European Jazz by Jonathon Brown
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Somewhere the words of that old song give you the best definition of the business of jazz. True, the real origins of the use of the word are in black American music a hundred years ago, but from such seed has grown a terrific flowering across the world. >>

Dabbling or Europe's gems by Lucy Lethbridge
It sometimes seems that any old thing will do for jewellery in the sensation-seeking, post-modern world of modern fashion. Ever since plastic apple-core pendants and fried-egg earrings (yes, yes, I had both and quite often wore them together - like an unappetising snack) were the last word in cheap chic in the late 1970s.... >>

Desk bound: in search of writers' houses by Caroline Bugler
There's something irresistible about wandering round a writer's house, lingering in rooms where a novel has been composed, looking at the view from the desk, and imagining the fantasies that have taken place within the walls. Reading letters that were once private, and resting your eyes on personal mementoes gives genuine insight >>

What a life by William MacDermott
In December 2007, French airport shops sported tall piles of paperbacks from whose severe cover emerged a soft-focus photo of a striking young woman, caught in half profile. Simone Veil had published her long-awaited memoirs. Outside France, Simone Veil first came to notice in 1974 when as Minister for Health she introduced legislation to permit abortion. >>

Florence: still turning heads by Jonathon Brown
In the early 1800s the craze for British travellers to see Florence was such that the Florentines referred to any foreigner, irrespective of nationality, as an 'Inglese'. Everything about the place was right - a perfect setting, amidst hills and by a river; an air of nobility and worthy stability, with every other building a church or palace; skilful human >>

The Lengthening days to Easter by Lucy Lethbridge
Easter Sunday is early this year, on 23 March. The rule, since the Middle Ages, has been that Easter day is observed on the Sunday following the first full moon after the day of the vernal equinox. In fact the Christian liturgical calendar (vastly complicated since an astronomical full moon in fact different from an ecclesiastical full moon) is positively >>

Great fly-fishing rivers of Europe by Lucy Hannah
'They fasten red wool round a hook, and fit it on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles, and which in colour are like wax. Then they throw their snare, and the fish attracted and maddened by the colour, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful, when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught >>

Bearded in their dens: Marx and Engels in London
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring and the May 68 uprising in Paris which echoed across Europe and world-wide. One hundred and sixty years ago saw 1848 the Year of Revolution, the Spring of Nations with uprisings across the Continent. These European revolutions were the violent consequences of ... >>

Ten of the best: European exhibition highlights for 2008
by Caroline Bugler
By some mysterious process - you may call it zeitgeist - European museums often seem to alight simultaneously on similar subjects for their exhibitions. Two years ago Rubens was everywhere, even though there was no obvious event or anniversary to prompt the spate of exhibitions. Monet is a perennial... >>

Gypsy influence on European music by Jonathon Brown
In the twentieth century Gypsy music, as a music so attuned to dazzling effect and improvisatory panache, naturally had an influence that was perhaps stronger in jazz than in the more exactly notated 'classical' music that is the successor to Brahms. (That is said despite the wonderful presence Gypsy music in the music of Ravel, Kodály or Enescu or, of course, Bartók.) >>

Knitting casts off its dowdy image by Lucy Lethbridge
Knitwear has had something of a bad press in recent decades. It's been associated with woollies; with make do and mend; with the clack, clack of granny's knitting needles at work on a pair of baby booties or a balaclava for the boys at the Front. It has been considered altogether too close to its artisan origins to be truly chic. >>

Rapping up Europe by Lucy Hannah
In December 2007 a group of seventeen wannabe rap artists devoted a week to develop and produce a narrative rap album as part of the European Commisson's Youth-in-Action programme. The group of men and women, all under twenty five years old, was a mix of ex-offenders, those at risk of offending and one who was on day release... >>

Pyramid Selling by Jonathon Brown
In the book of Kenneth Clark's classic television series, Civilisation, the index has but three entries for Egyptian civilisation. Clark was struck by the achievements of that culture, of course - the structures, the art, the urban sophistication - but he was also depressedly struck by the stability, since in 3,000 years their culture seems to have remained to all intents and purposes static. When we see the way of the world since, we may well look on in envy. >>

Solus Per Aqua: Jonathon Brown offers to be your Spa guide
One image that comes to mind right away, with the idea of a Spa, is something from a belle époque of nineteenth century elegance: royalty, gentry and arrivistes, all refreshed by baths and bracing waters, now sporting straw hats and blazers, walking leisurely in parks, he with a cane, she with her petticoat parasol. But the origins of the instinct to 'take the waters' - and indeed, to take to the waters - is far, far older. >>

Vicky
The celebrated cartoonist Vicky (alias of Victor Weisz b.1913 - d.1966) was born in Berlin of Hungarian Jewish parents and was educated at the Berlin Art School.His loathing of injustice and inhumanity led him to become a committed socialist without joining any political party. After publishing anti-Hitler cartoons, he escaped to Britain in 1935. >>

Shakespeare "the first European" by Jonathon Brown
Many of us feel that only Rembrandt matches [his] detailed wonder at life - or Picasso - but the primordial place Shakespeare occupies in the literature of almost every language other than his own testifies to his unique standing as humankind's most resonant voice and least distorting mirror....>>

Au pairs by Lucy Lethbridge
Here's a little known fact about recent French presidential candidate Segolene Royal: she once spent time as an au pair in Ireland. It all happened over 35 years ago, in 1971. The 18-year-old Segolene came to live for a summer with the Roche family in Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin, and helped to look after their three small children. Graziella Roche....' >>

Holmes and away by Jonathon Brown
Somebody has swiped my copy of The Casebook of a Victorian Detective; I shall have to try to find out who did it. The book was published thirty years ago at least, by Canongate in Edinburgh, and told the true stories of three decades of detective life in the City Police, beginning in 1830. It was in that >>

Children of the future age
William Blake (1757 - 1827), the Englis