NoBorders Festival, volunteers become actors and musicians for solidarity and inclusion

The 1st of October took place the NoBorders Festival, a multicultural and inclusive event involving young people, languages and cultures from all over the world, that filled with colour the Amphitheatre of the University of Calabria. The Festival, organised by the Cultural Association Entropia, was part of a European Solidarity Corps volunteering project that involved more than 40 volunteers from Italy, Spain, Portugal and non-EU countries (Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Uruguay, Afghanistan, Burkina, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Syria, Guinea, Guinea Bissau). In just two weeks, the volunteers organized the festival through their participation in four diverse workshops: theatre, art, communication and music, characterised by linguistic and cultural diversity.

The event started with the NoBorders Food stand where Afghan, Ecuadorian and Spanish dishes were prepared and offered by volunteers. The first performance of the Festival showed the migrants' journey: the conflicts and threat, but also the beauty and strength of diversity. The performance, which involved the volunteers themselves, was the outcome of the theatre workshop led by Paolo Spinelli. The second performance, led by the orchestra director Checco Pallone, was a jam session with a mix of styles, talents and rhythms from around the world. Closing the event was the eagerly awaited concert by Moti Rivoluzionari, an emerging music group from Acri, which brought to the Campus the energy that had been missing for months.

Daniela Ielasi, president of the Entropia association, thanked the team of volunteers of the European Solidarity Corps for their commitment and enthusiasm in promoting and building together the multicultural festival of inclusion, inviting all young people present to follow the example of the volunteers, to commit themselves, to be active citizens and to develop a critical conscience. The festival's message was also one of solidarity with Mimmo Lucano, who a few hours earlier had received a harsh and controversial sentence, and who in Calabria has become the symbol of resistance to a system that excludes and leaves the last ones behind. Marta Petrusewicz, culture councilor of the city of Rende also thanked the association, the volunteers and the participants, expressing the pleasure of being in a varied and international environment from a linguistic and cultural point of view.

The NoBorders Festival project gave the young participants the opportunity not only to get out of their comfort zones, but to return to social environments after more than a year of isolation. The opportunity to share their life stories, create new ones, forge new bonds and work side by side to build a community without borders. Anna, a Spanish participant who said after this experience: "For a long time I was trying to understand what I should do with my life. Now I can say that I have understood: I want to work with migrants and refugees, and help them on their path to integration". Or Lassina, a young refugee from the Ivory Coast, who has been in Italy for less than a year, who said: "For the first time since I left my country, I felt part of a group. I felt welcomed and understood, despite the difficulties due to the language".