Earthdance - Amsterdam

On Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of September, Namasté connects with Earthdance for the coming years, to celebrate the World Day of Peace with joined strengths. Entirely in line with the motto of Namasté – ‘Connecting Cultures’ – and the creed of Earthdance – ‘Give Peace a Dance’ – the visitors come into contact with a large blend of worldly cultures during this event. Earthdance Weekend 2009 promises to be a socially justified, alternative dance event, where awareness, the balance between people and nature and spirituality play a key role. Therefore 50% of the profits will go to the humanitarian charities of the 1%Club and the Tibet Support Group, but above all it will be musical adventure of which you return with a backpack filled with inspiration.

Earthdance - the worldwide dance festival for peace – has grown to be the world’s largest synchronized international music and dance event. Taking of in 1996 in 22 cities in eighteen countries, Earthdance has grown into a festival spread over more than three hundred cities in sixty countries. The locations vary from the club scene in New York, to in the rain forest of Brazil. Every year on the World Day of Peace over three hundred thousand people all over the world join in this dance for peace. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people support world peace and humanitarian charities online. Next to this, the music industry refers to Earthdance as being the “Dance Aid” of the new millennium. Therefore the goal is to bring worldly cultures together in order to create a synchronized, worldwide dance festival to promote global awareness.

The cooperation with Namasté is almost obvious, since, more than ever, Namasté is a widely oriented platform for alternative dance. And of course because the events are being visited more and more by visitors with an open mind for familiarization with other worldly music trends, people and cultures. Next to the dance program in combination with live world music, big artists from The Netherlands and abroad play an important role during the Earthdance Weekend 2009. It is all about to happen on the legendary East German fisherman boat MS Stubnitz, that mores at the NDSM dockyard in Amsterdam. For this occasion the quay will also be involved; here you can intensely enjoy Ambiënt music, abundantly filled market stalls and world food stands and on the Saturday, the capacity will be enlarged with the arrival of the renown Supperclub Cruise. Combined with the impressive decoration, there is no possible escape from to the large variety of world cultures and their specific perceptions, emotions, habits and rituals.

1%Club
*More than half of the world’s population lives of less than one euro a day. Almost one billion people go to bed hungry each day, of which three hundred million are children. More than one billion people lives without access to clean drinking water and each day people die of hunger, sickness and dangerous living conditions. There are many ways to structurally improve the living conditions of these people with the one percent given by you. Whether that one percent is money, time, knowledge, voice or your weblog; one percent can mean a world of difference for people in development countries.
On www.1procentclub.nl you can see the projects supported by the 1%Club and via www.namaste.nl you’ll be able to vote for the projects you want to support with the profits of this year’s Earthdance Weekend. Your vote must be heard here, because eventually forty percent of the ticket price will be given to the four highest rated projects.

Tibet Support Group
*When you think Earthdance, you think Tibet and the many years Earthdance has contributed to the Tibet Support Group, through which Earthdance has supported several projects in Tibet. The stories reaching the western civilization, despite of the heavily censured media in Tibet, still report about oppression and violence against the Tibetans. The population in Tibet continues with peaceful protests against Chinese occupation, though, while the they remain extremely abstinent of violence. A method the rest of the world can draw lessons from. Fortunately there still are organizations like the Tibet Support Group, contributing positively to the progress in the region by continuous pressure and awareness campaigns. Earthdance supports these organizations and through these organizations the population in Tibet. Therefore half of the profits of Earthdance 2008 have been given to Tibetan Dream, one of the charities with projects like improving schools, cultural centers and orphan and nursing homes. This year, ten percent of the ticket sales is being used for projects in Tibet.
On www.earthdance.nl/tibet you can find which projects are being supported with your contribution this year.

National ticket sales:
Buy your Namasté tickets online via www.namaste.eu.
Online presales starts 17.08.2009