El
Sueno Existe Festival Weekend
Mae’r
Freuddwyd Yn Bodoli
A Festival inspired by
the life of Victor Jara of Chile.
 
The first festival was
held on the Weekend of 22/23/24/July 2005.
September 11th 2003 was
the 30th anniversary of the military coup in
Chile; an attempt to stamp out the visionary
project of Savador Allende and the dream of a
fairer society. Thousands, including the great
singer-songwriter Victor Jara, perished in the
tide of fascism that followed the coup, but
despite the years of US backed oppressions the
dream survived.
'El Sueño
Existe' (The Dream Lives) was the name given to
the commemorative events in Chile and a seed from
there found it's way to to the mountains of mid
Wales giving birth to a magical 3 day festival in
the town of Machynlleth.
For this festival we
wove a tapestry of Welsh, Venezuelan, and Chilean
music, dance, theatre and poetry, and through all
this shone an inspiring message to Wales and to
all humanity form Joan Jara, Victor Jara's widow.
The seed has taken root here and will grow into
further expressions of the dream.
Click Here to hear an MP3 file of
Joan Jara's message to the festival
Click Here for a slideshow of photos of
the festival
The Inspration behind
the festival
Over the past few years the group that
formed Mind Out For Music have arranged evening
concerts and events based on the Chilean New Song
Movement , and particularly the life and work of
Victor Jara who was a central figure in its
creation and development.
Victor Jara
was a great Chilean musician, song writer and
theatre director. His life has become a symbol of
one of the most beautiful and inspiring
experiences of the twentieth century: a new kind
of democracy, in which even the poor can
participate fully to change their lives for the
better.When that democracy was overturned by the
coup of 1973, Victor Jara was seen as such a
threat that he was imprisoned, tortured and
murdered by the incoming military junta. Yet he
is celebrated still, and with great fervour , in
his home country of Chile. Across the world there
are people with quite different national and
cultural experiences who have found that Victor
Jara symbolizes their vision, a vision that they
share with his Chilean compatriots.
This is the origin of the El
Sueno Existe festival in Machynlleth,
Mid-Wales.
We felt that
Machynlleth was a particularly appropriate venue
for this celebration in view of the Welsh
nation’s own struggle for self-determination
and independence. This has been achieved not only
through political action, but also through the
artistic and cultural activities of song, dance,
poetry, art and theatre, reinforcing and
celebrating a unique national identity.
We have no
doubt that people enjoyed the music, dance,
poetry and theatre of the festival, but we also
wanted to explain what lies at the heart of the
vision that inspired us to organize it. At a time
when the US and UK governments are telling us
that violent intervention is the way to spread
freedom and democracy throughout the world, we
can gain great courage and inspiration from
Victor Jara. He showed us that there is indeed
another way - a peaceful, joyful and inclusive
way of developing and sustaining a true democracy
for all.
Links
Victor Jara Foundation: fundacion@victorjara.tie.cl
Casa Victor Jara: www.casavictorjara.tk
Mind Out For Music: mindout4music.org.uk
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