The 10th edition of the festival “Villes des Musiques du Monde” (Cities of World Music) kicked off October 20th and runs until November 15th, 2009. The festival is supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation, which is also celebrating 10 years of support and involvement in Seine-Saint-Denis. The aim of the festival is to strengthen the links between various cities around the world, as well as the links between artist and music enthusiast. Each show is an opportunity to journey to the other side of the world and discover unique and captivating artists, sounds, and performances.

In addition, different workshops such as dance classes, cooking lessons, and music lessons, will be offered during the month. As part of the awareness workshops in art, children and their parents will learn about cultural and social development in Turkey before meeting and attending the concert of the Turkish Karagöz gypsy orchestra.

These workshops, which provide a rich program with common values of solidarity and sharing, are an invitation to “travel” while staying in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Aubervilliers, Pantin … different cities of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis (a suburb of Paris).

“In the beginning the project was born into a structure that involved the young community… not only implicating participants and volunteers in an artistic way, but also providing internships, discovering new ideas, networking and mobilising everyone involved… 10 years ago it started with one city, now we cover 18!” –André Falcucci

“The partnership with BNP Paribas is focused on all the actions that are essential to the life of this festival. This annual engagement is very important for us, and we hope they [BNP Paribas] keep supporting us for a longer period of time… so we can work on future projects…” –Kamel Dafri