International Festival of Youth Creativity Folk Inspirations has taken place in Lodz since 2011. Pałac Młodzieży and Convivo Foundation are the organizers of the Festival.
The idea behind the festival is to inspire young people to create contemporary works in various artistic fields, based on the cultural traditions of peoples and ethnic groups. An important element of the programme is to promote multicultural Lodz and culturally diverse regions of Lodz and the different cultures in the world. Folk Inspirations is an innovative educational and cultural event due to a variety of places and events of international youth projects implemented during the festival.
FOLK INSPIRATIONS is not an ordinary folklore festival. It has its own character and unique atmosphere created by the energy of young people. This is a festival that creates youth fascinated by the culture and traditions of the nations and ethnic groups in the world.
During FOLK INSPIRATIONS there is a place for traditional folk dance and folk song, but also for the song and contemporary dance – inspired by folk culture. The festival is a place for such presentations as designers installations, craft experiments, cross-cultural dance forms performed by international groups of young artists, the music combines tradition and modern sounds and traditional songs in a new arrangement. Festival stands out because of its innovative educational activities around the themes of cross-cultural and national heritage. For children and youth there are activities based on innovative working methods: flashmobs, quests, outdoor games, urban games, and activities in Lodz museums.
A very important festival activity is the promotion of folklore and cultural traditions of the Lodz region by organizing artistic and educational events in various places of cultural heritage of the Lodz region. The tasks were carried out in the open-air museum in Nagawki, in Łęczyca and in Łowicz area in the open-air museum in Maurzyce. Every year, participants of the festival together with the inhabitants of Lodz discover the rich history of the City of Four Cultures.
For 10 years the program of the festival consisted of concerts, street dance show, performances of street theatre, music projects, competition: dance, vocal, vocal -music, photo and design – GOLDEN BOAT, workshops and education, fashion shows, exhibitionsof works competition, street actions with audience participation and folk picnics.
For ten years, the festival was attended by young artists from 28 countries around the world: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Georgia, Spain, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Hungary and Italy.
In 10 editions of the festival we had about 2500 young artists , 500 volunteers and about 1000 pupils from Lodz and Lodz voivodship. We had the audience of about 20 000 people.