Due to the global crises, pandemics and wars, there have not been many opportunities for people to learn from each other in person; sing and dance together; celebrate and discuss the positive aspects of local and global solidarity, together. We aim to offer some space and time where people can meet and take part in a programme of translation, dance, music, workshops and discussions during a 3-day long festival.

Translation Village would also like to emphasise the spirit of international solidarity and cooperation, while being locally based on the island.

We will bridge the local with the global in the ancient villages and shores of Imvros Island, in the universal languages of music, dance and translation.

We believe that both localism and internationalism are vital for the survival of humanity.

‘Being and suffering at the centre of these global problems’, we invite all language and culture workers, locals and internationalists, music and dance performers and lovers who believe there is a way for greater solidarity, cooperation and mutual aid.

The festival team have cooperated with local people and grassroots groups and organisations, and created a programme full of enjoyable and participatory workshops, concerts and dance activities to give festival participants the chance to discuss how they can manage local and global solidarity by using the welcoming and universal language of music, dance and translation.

Suitable for all people to enjoy and participate in, the four-day programme of pop-up experiences and activities will take place in multiple historical locations of the island across the four villages, providing the opportunity for the local community and professional artists, musicians and dancers to inspire residents and visitors.

A full version of the festival program is available here.

“We are living in a world in which we are either going to cooperate internationally or we are going to be destroyed’. All of the major problems we face, ‘and they are very serious problems’, are international or transnational. The recent developments showed us all that ‘There are no borders to pandemics, there are no borders to global warming, there are no borders to the threat of nuclear war’. Nothing. ‘Every problem we face is international’. There is a slogan, Internationalism or Extinction. ‘That’s what we actually face, and interpreters and translators are right at the heart of this.”

Noam Chomsky on “Internationalism or Extinction”, International Translation Day, 30 September, 2021.