The fifth Cross-Culture Warsaw Festival, one of Poland's biggest events presenting music and culture from around the world, will be held between 13 and 19 September 2009 in front of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.

The festival, initiated in 2005, is a showcase for the most interesting trends in world music and culture. So far, 100 individual artists and groups from over 40 countries have presented their creative output at the event.

The festival's main idea and mission is to show Warsaw's residents and visitors the wealth of cultures in the contemporary world, and build sensitivity to cultural and artistic diversity.

Youssou N'Dour (Senegal), photo: Youri Lenquette

This year's festival focuses on events from the realm of world music. The programme maximizes the "cross-cultural" aspect by presenting multicultural projects, the guiding idea behind them being joint performances by Polish and foreign musicians. The star of the festival is Youssou N'Dour from Senegal, hailed as the greatest vocalist of Black Africa. N'Dour has worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Sting, Neneh Cherry, and Dido. On Sunday, 13 September in Warsaw, he will perform the hit song "7 Seconds" with Anna Maria Jopek. Vocalist and guitarist Tcheka from the Cape Verde Islands will perform on the same day.

The second day of the festival will feature a fado and bossa nova concert. The first performer will be Ana Mours (Portugal), one of the greatest fado artists today. Marcio Faraco (Brazil) will present a special programme celebrating 50 years of bossa nova - the first album by Joao Gilberto, one of the fathers of bossa nova, was released in 1959.

Tcheka (The Cape Verde Islands), photo: Eric Mulet

Sister Fa (Senegal), photo: Michael Mann

An ethno-rap concert is planned for 15 September. Leading Cuban band Orishas will play rap merged with Latino music, and the concert will also feature Sister Fa (Senegal) - a rapper who combines African sounds with engaged texts against polygamy and circumcision of girls in Africa.

Orishas (Kuba), photo: Edouard Salier

The following day includes a concert by the legendary Berber orchestra Master Musicians of Jajouka from Morocco. They cultivate a music tradition going back 1,000 years, but also work with contemporary musicians of the Western world, including Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones and Bill Laswell. Kwadrofonik, a Polish quartet of music academy graduates, will present their original arrangement of 20th- and 21st-century classical music as well as modern interpretations of Polish folk music. Both groups will also play a joint programme they prepared specially for the festival.

A concert uniting artists from different historical regions is planned for 17 September. The Al Andaluz Project is a merger of three different groups and three musical regions of historical Spain. The Polish band Mosaic will play Polish, Balkan, and Middle Eastern music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is a leading Indian instrumentalist, designer and virtuoso of the Mohan veena, an innovative instrument based on the Indian veena and the Hawaiian guitar. The artist won international fame and the prestigious Grammy Award for his recordings in duet with Ry Cooder. He will perform at the festival on 18 September.

Mosaic (Poland), photo: Mariusz Kuś

Al Andaluz Project (Spain), Photo from press materials

This year's event closes on 19 September with a performance by Farafina (Burkina Faso) - a group whose over 30-year history has abounded in collaborations with famous Western musicians as well as prestigious events such as a Nelson Mandela birthday concert for 72,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium.

With the youngest audience in mind, a multicultural concert on 13 September will feature children from Burkina Faso and Poland. The festival also includes a photography exhibition by Jola Lipka, Barwy tradycji / Colours of Tradition. The official patron of this simultaneous exhibition in Warsaw and three cities in Morocco (opening on 14 September) is King of Morocco Mohammed VI.

Master Musicians of Jajouka (Morocco), Photo from press materials

Kwadrofonik (Poland), photo: Dariusz Senkowski

Workshops run by Maria Pomianowska will also be part of the Cross-Culture Festival. The following classes will be held this year: Polish historical dance, African body language and rhythm, vocal emission and Bulgarian vocal techniques, melodic improvisation on traditional string instruments, playing North Indian drums - focusing on the tabla, creating proto-Slavic songs and "wild dances" with the help of Slovakian pipes. The workshops will culminate in a joint concert by the workshop masters and their pupils on 19 September.

For more information and a detailed programme, visit the website: www.estrada.com.pl.

Contact: Stołeczna Estrada
ul. Marszałkowska 77/79, 00-683 Warsaw
phone: (+48 22) 628 44 40/50, (+48) 669 425 862
Workshops: Małgorzata Korczyńska
cell: (+48) 501 451 432
agencja_ami@op.pl
www.estrada.com.pl

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