Meet the freak#5 2009; 11-26 August; Szalka, Hungary

The summer seems ages ago, but only four months passed since Meet the freak 2009 happened in the wonderful town called Szalka in the south of Hungary. Now there is a great compilation video, bringing back all the summer feelings and good memories. An overview of what the theatre, media, dancing, juggling visual art and music group did.

If you would like to see yourself when you were there too, or if you would like to know who were present or why you should be at Meet the freak 2010: have a look! Thanks to Media art group leader Asja! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7bq-3OtspU

For pictures of Meet the freak 2009 click here.

Are you interested in contributing to Meet the freak 2010? Contact joris (at) iynf.org

Meet the freak#5 2009 took place in Szálka, Hungary, from 11-26 August 2009.

Meet the freak is a project of the International Young Naturefriends (IYNF)

Meet the freak#5 2009 means 16 days of unbound creativity in Szalka, Hungary. The main aim of “Meet the freak” is creating a place where participants feel free to express themselves, meet and interact with different cultures and undergo personal development by creating, interacting and learning together.

The special thing about "Meet the freak" is that its objectives are being fulfilled by using Amateur Art as a method. (We prefer to use “Amateur” Art because we use art as a method and skill/professionalism is not the main goal). The main theme of Meet the freak V 2009 is neighbours in touch.

This is what we are aiming at:

- Raising intercultural awareness and sensitivity of everyone involved
- Supporting volunteering and active participation
- Encouraging self organisational skills by creating and learning together

2009 we aim to cooperate with NFJOe - Austria , ATB - Belgium , Duha VTS - Czech Republic , NFJ Bremen - Germany ,IFU - Hungary, PTTK - Poland, Rota Jovem - Portugal , Duha - Slovakia and Glas - Romania.

Recipe for Meet the freak‘s piece of cake

The original idea of Meet the freak was to do art together in an international group. By improving skills and sharing knowledge in an international group intercultural learning naturally happens and the communication between all participating people arises.

Still, questions which again and again appear when talking about Meet the freak are “Why is the project that successful? Why are so many people attracted by this way of learning?“ We were wondering as well and it took us almost three years to name the reasons and form them into a concept which would serve as a guide for everyone who wants to understand more what Meet the freak is about and how to make this cake. 

What does the concept tell about Meet the freak?
Meet the freak means a space for a creative discovery of your “inner freak” and meeting others through experiencing together various methods in different fields of art exploring the theme Interaction. Working two weeks on spreading the amateur art experience towards us and the local community, we want to raise the intercultural awareness, encourage the self organising skills and support active participation of young people.

Ingredients (what do we need)

• Guiding through a learning process in the Art groups
• Facilitating creative reflection on different levels (personal experience, group experience, practical use)
• Sharing the learning outcomes with the local communities
• Distribution of responsibilities and tasks

Spices (our working approaches)

• Communicating enthusiasm
• Supportive and motivating attitude towards sharing with the others
• Open communication allowing for personal development and reflection
• Creating safe environment for learning
• Speaking out IYNFs’ values directly/creating a community based on common values of respect, solidarity, equality and love and care for people and nature
• We enjoy it!

Meet the freak galery