COOLTOUR - Festival of Culture for Children - Faro

The 4th Edition of the COOLTOUR Festival - Cultural Festival for Children, Families and School communities, is set out to create a number of diverse cultural events dedicated to children from an Education through Arts perspective.

This campaign aims to strengthen the 4th edition of the COOLTOUR Festival, that has been growing year by year. This growth can be seen in both numbers of children and families which come and enjoy the festival as well as in the diversity and quality of the activities.

LEARNING WITH YOUR MIND, HEART and HANDS

 The Festival is anchored in Education through ARTS, NON-FORMAL education and FORUM-THEATRE to debate relevant topics for the younger public. In previous years, the themes were "identity", "the power of image and publicity", "human diversity", "family", "digust and taboos".

 The younger public is invited to experiment, act, dance and play by travelling through an interactice maze - this year, the Futuremaze - while he/she learns with his/her experiences. The Forum-Theatre is a key methadology in promoting the participation, as the spectators are also the creators of the conclusion of each act.

Images of previous editions.

 This year the MAIN THEMES will be the Ria Formosa and its inhabitants, memory and the power of money. The themes work as a transversal axis by which the majority of the events are organized.

The 2016 PROGRAMME will include:

• A themed multi-sensoral JOURNEY - Futuremaze - where children will be able to interact with a wise stork, a clever chameleon, a very old crab and a machine which registers dreams for the future.

• A kids SHOW in the form of a giant telly - TV Futurex - where themes such as the power of money and friendship will be debated and also where children will be able to meet the famous  Sab E. Chão, especialista em educação (Professor Know-It-All Educational Specialist).  TV Frentex 2015  teaser 

• A kids CONCERT by artists João Violão and Tessa

• An interactive PARADE with all the characters from the Futuremaze in the city centre of Faro. 

• A music and yoga WORKSHOP for babies. 

• An EXHIBITION with all the characters created over the years, from the very first edition. 

• a TALK from parents to parents: what type of education do we want for our kids?

 With the COOLTOUR festival we aim to:

• PROVOKE children's critical thinking and help them become more tolerant, aware and responsible.

• INSPIRE and foster debate and activities post festival within the family and school contexts.

• STIMULATE the cultural life in Faro, giving visibility to practices and local cultural projects. 

• Help CREATE new cultural habits and ATTRACT new public including all young spectators such as the gypsy community in Faro, who have been a part of the festival since the very beginning. 

The COOLTOUR festival will take place on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of November 2016 in various locations in Faro. 

About the author

We have joined together a strong team of professionals in the field of arts and education, volunteers and artists of diverse contexts and experiences who together enrich the dinamics and the content of the festival with their ideas and commitment.  

 The team is led by a COOLTOUR colective of 3 organizations: 

1. Amarelarte - Associação Cultural e Recreativa

 Amarelarte aims to promote various cultural aspects. The activities target children, teens and adults who see culture as added value. Amarelarte gives high importance to the development of the creativity and bets on the advantages that culture brings to both our personal and professional lives.

It has created a space for dialogue, between professionals and non-professionals from various cultural areas, a constant exchange of ideas . It bets on the creative process and the creative strength of the group.

Amarelarte develops, promotes and values projects which can be integrated in different cultural components with the promotion of literature, creative workshops for children, teens and adults, musical events or performances, theatre, dance, visual arts, parties and themed festivals.

English 21

English 21 was founded in 2012 aiming to offer a wide range of different types of classes, from business English, General English to Cambridge Exam Preparation Courses, for adult students and small businesses at an accessible price.

The school, which has been present since the beginning of the festival has a fundamental role in the creation of the characters for the Maze and its promotion. The school's students have taken part in the festival every year and are involved in all the festival events. English 21 also has an important pedagogical role behind the festival given its specific experience and mastery in teaching teens and young children. 

3. Mandacaru . Cooperativa de Intervenção Social e Cultural

The Cooperative aims to take on projects at a cultural, artistic and social intervention, promoting Art as a means of Education, training, human development, social and cultural inclusion for the community in general, in particular groups with lesser opportunities. 

To do so, Mandacaru:

• produces and supports artistic creation in a transdisciplinary perspective (namely Theatre; Cenography; Circus; Visual Arts; Dance; Digital Arts), promoted both by the cooperative and supported by new projects and partnerships.

• does training and workshops for the general public and professionals from different areas. 

•  takes on Social, Community and Cultural Animation Projects

• and participates and organizes Cultural and Artistic Events

The cooperative brings all its experience in forum theatre, interaction with the public and inclusion of children from the gypsy community in Faro; an enormous asset for the festival.

Budget and due dates

To improve the Festival we want to grow in a sustainable way. We did a similar campaign in 2014, which was very sucessful and so we have decided to use this strategy again this year. 

We need 900Euros which will distribute in the following way:

• Supplies for the Maze - Futuremaze - and Kids Play - TV Futurex: 130€
• Food for the team and volunteers: 100€
• Rental and maintanence of the rooms at the Casa Amarela: 115€
• Communication, promotion and merchandising: 250€
• Financial reward for the team: 250€
• PPL Percentage (5%+IVA): 55€

Images