WMDF: World Music and Dance Festival in Hakodate, Japan » 2013, WMDF 006

Six Days of WMDF: Thanks to All

TOK — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 14:20:47 +0000

The Motomachi Park performances of this year’s WMF finished on a high.

Thanks to all who contributed to making this our biggest day yet. It was standing-room-only for our closing ceremony on the Atlas Stage. As representatives of the international groups, we presented Toozalii with their certificate of thanks. We then closed with world folk dance on the Bunda stage, led by Hinokiya.

WMDF was a success thanks to the inspiration of the artists, MoguFes booths, staff, and of course the audience. We are already planning to welcome you back to an even bigger and better event next year!

(Photos by Glaretone)

WMDF Survives Rain

TOK — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:23:36 +0000

For the 5th day of WMDF, we announced that we would run from mid-day, and were very lucky that no rain then interrupted the day’s performances.

The overnight rain made it look unlikely that any stages would be possible, but the efforts of our staff to protect the site during the night paid off.

JR stopped trains around Hokkaido, but the Nakano Nanzumai Hozonkai from Iwate still managed to make it in time to perform (we switched their performance time with the performance of Hinokiya).

Apologies to all the Hinokiya fans who were planning to see their favourite group late tonight. You have your chance on the final day after 9pm, when they play a Folk Dance Finale at the Bunda stage.

We look forward to welcoming you on our final day, which starts at 14:00. It has been a long week of meeting new worlds. Let’s celebrate the last day together.

(Photos by Glaretone)

WMDF Setting up For Day 5 on Fri

Ian Frank — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 04:13:32 +0000

The heavy overnight rain has cleared enough for us to run this Friday. Thanks for all your calls and inquiries. Please note:

There may be schedule changes. Already, we can announce that the Atlas stage performance of Hinokiya will be at 18:15, and Nakano Nanazumai Hozonkai will be at 20:20 (these two performances are swapped from the original schedule).
There may be stage cancellations due to electrical problems caused by the amount of rainfall.
Some MoguFes booths may not run today.
Audience members are asked to take special care of their footing in the park.
We recommend that people bring towels, or materials to dry seating surfaces.
Further announcements of schedule changes may be made in the park.

Thanks for your support!

A Lot of Rain…

Ian Frank — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 02:10:11 +0000

Hakodate has taken a lot of rain since around midnight yesterday. WMDF staff have spent the night trying to keep Motomachi Park fit and safe for today’s event. The organisers will make a final decision on whether or not we can go ahead today before 13:00. We will announce any cancellation here as well as via email and at the site. Please stay tuned for further updates.

WMDF Now Past Half-way!

TOK — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 13:37:53 +0000

So, Day 4 of our sixth edition comes to an end.

Although the last day is on Saturday, there still seems so much to experience…

Of the many highlights we could pick out from another packed day, check out the third picture below, of WMDF’s first “Kid’s Staff”. We have wanted for a while to start offering educational opportunities to children to accompany our staff, and to learn about events in a new way. Our first trial was a “Kid’s MC”, and was very well received by both audience and performers (thanks Bati-holic!)

Two days to go to meet many new worlds. Please get yourself along to Motomachi Park…

(Photos by Glaretone)