Hot forging, warm hugs, cold beer and not vice versa!

Transcription

1 Hot forging, warm hugs, cold beer and not vice versa! Ukraine cordially invites you with your friends to our 7th International Blacksmith Festival and 8th exhibition "Ornamental Forging"

2 in Ivano-Frankivsk (Western Ukraine) will take place on 8-10 May, 2009 Organized by the Union of Masters of Blacksmith Art of Ukraine. The heart is beating; the soul is open to new contacts- the time has come!

3 Contact: Sergiy, Olga Polubotko : opolubotko1@yahoo.com This is what our festival is: 300 registered blacksmiths,

4 place where East and West meet you will see a lot of new smiths you had no chance to see at festivals in Western Europe, participants from 20 countries,

5 friendly and hospitable people, nice, very compact city a with its specific aura- if you come once you would always want to come back,

6 Every year we make a collaborative sculpture TREE OF UNIVERSE was in 2008

7 There also was a conference during the festival, we paid tribute to Alfred Habermann excursions to the Carpathian mountains, staying in the cottages overnight a tour to the almost the highest peak of the Carpathian mountains

8 getting to know folk music and traditions blacksmith exhibition,

9 parties celebrating birthdays! interpreters who help you all day long, such a friendly atmosphere around the fire, singing songs all night long

10 that you will miss it the moment you have to go home. We melted iron ore, added there iron scales/dross brought by the participants from all countries which was very symbolic - our friendship was boiling to get stronger at the festival in the same way as well Those who cаme once, keep coming every year! Come by yourself and tell your friends you will never be sorry that you opened for yourself this rich in history, traditions, crafts and culture country which had been unknown for you before

11 Read articles about this year and previous festivals (also in English) and you can see the photos of this year's festival at the site of the Union of Masters of Blacksmith Art of Ukraine (click on every red line where there is number 2007, 2008 and Ivano-Frankivsk) If any questions I am here to help you and answer your questions.

12 We are waiting for you! You are welcome! Info:invitation 7th International Artist Blacksmith Festival, Ukraine,Ivano-Frankivsk, 8-10 May, 2009 Dear Artist Blacksmiths, Schmiede, Fabbri, Forjadori, Forgeroni!! You are cordially invited to the 7th International Artist Blacksmith Festival and exhibition "Ornamental Forging" in Ivano-Frankivsk, Western Ukraine, on 8-10 May,2009. Feel free to pass the information to other people interested, put at blacksmith information web-sites of your countries, in your blacksmith magazines. Ukrainian blacksmiths invite you to participate in the event and guarantee burning fires, warm welcome and cold beer (not vice versa!!), enthusiasm, professional meetings and a burst of emotions! You are welcome! Wilkommen! Benvenuto! La bienvenue! Bienvenido! Contact: Sergiy, Olga Polubotko opolubotko1@yahoo.com arma.com.ua/ua/news/ Read articles about this year and previous festival (also in English) and you can see the photos of last year's festival at the site of the Union of Masters of Blacksmith Art of Ukraine (click on every red line where there is number 2007, 2008 near name of the city IVANO FRANKIVSK ) People from EU countries don t need visas to come to Ukraine.

13 I send you the layout of the last year festival. Something similar will be this year too... Blacksmith Festival for 3 days, exhibition ( maybe 2 of them one is with students' works, another is formed form the works of the participants),unveiling of the last (2008) year's joint project " HAPPINESS TREE ", conference with lectures and slide shows of the prominent smiths of different countries, party together somewhere in a restaurant, excursions to nature/mountains/nice places; extra programme for those who want it visit to the mountains, staying overnight in the cottages, parties, souvenirs, communication on Monday and Tuesday. For the festival itself we plan a collaborative joint project which will be installed in the city next year. The topic of the sculpture will be announced later. The festival is May 8-10, 2009, Ivano-Frankivsk, Western Ukraine. You are kindly invited to our festival and exhibition. I'll be in touch with you till you happily arrive at the hospitable Ukrainian land! Here is some of extra information you might need to plan your visit. Best Hotels are about US dollars per night breakfast including, the simpler -the cheaper --- up to 10 Euro (simple hostels and the conveniences are in the corridor, no breakfast). Take euro as a medium price for the hotel. Last year hotels gave us discounts but now we haven't spoken with the hotels yet. Restaurants are cheap here (comparatively speaking- about 6-10 euros per person for full dinner with drinks (also depends on the restaurant.) Beer, traditional tasty dishes are very cheap and good! Trains I know the trains go from Budapest, Wroclaw, Krakow (maybe other European big cities) to Lviv/Uzhgorod in Ukraine. Some people go by car, and if you decide so, we can find you companions from your part of the world to travel here and share expenses). Direction: Vienna, Budapest, in Ukraine - Chop, Uzhgorod, Stryj, Ivano-Frankivsk (southern route) and Wroclaw, Krakow, Przemysl (all in Poland), in Ukraine - direction Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk (northern route). Ivano-Frankivsk has got an airport but the flights are only to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. From the coming year Ukraine enters a net of cheap international flights (like WIZZAIR.com). You may ask for the flight price by plane to Lviv (Lvov) the closest airport. From Lviv we organised transport last year for participants it was free). So most of the participants arrived during the daytime to Lviv (Lvov) the day before Friday (next year it means - May,7) where our friends met them,had a short excursion in the downtown and were led to the organized transport at appr. 6 pm and the guests arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk on Thursday in the evening (8 pm). The hotel had been booked for them. Lviv is also a very beautiful city- much bigger and older. So if you are interested in sightseeing- arrive to Lviv one day earlier- our colleagues organized a sightseeing tour around Lviv with the visit to Lviv Academy of Art, then - a night in a hotel or hostel and then- as I have written before. But Lviv is a more expensive city (I mean hotels) Kiev is also a possibility. Our friends might meet you there, then either take you with them in the car, or there is a night train to our city (in Kiev - 7pm, in our city 8 am next day). Kiev is also a nice city and you may plan sightseeing either one day before or after the festival. Or you may arrive in Lviv - then our festival- then departure from Kiev. (our friends from Kiev may take you in their car to Kiev or you can use the same night train to Kiev ( 6 pm in Ivano-Frankivsk and 7 am next day in Kiev ). Thus you will see 3 nice cities. Registration last year was about 6 euro, party - 10 euro. Last year we had a programme for 3 full days (On Sunday we had the opening of the exhibition and then went to the excursion on the old train to the mountains and one more excursion to a center of Hutsul folk art with 2 folk museums, sometimes we went to the center of ancient Halych kingdom). We also appointed student-interpreters ( English, German, French and Italian) to the delegations to help you survive in the foreign country for all days of the stay.

14 Also those who wanted to know the country better and understand the national character stayed one more night in our city and on Monday as an extra programme we went to the mountain resort, had a programme there all day long with bania and souvenirs, barbecue, restaurants, small excursions in the local mountainous area, stayed overnight in the hotel in the mountains. After that, next day, the organized transport delivered participants to Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv airport so that the people could manage their flights, trains and so on. But for this we need to know the schedule of all flights of the participants. There are also flights from Budapest/Vienna/Warsaw to Lviv (Lvov) if you like this variant. Distance: from Vienna to our city of Ivano-Frankivsk ---about 1000 km. I hope this information will be good enough for you to think about for some days. Then you may write to us again asking the next portion of brain food! :-)