JOHANNESBURG 1st AND 2nd OF MAY 2009
The idea for the Indian Ocean Festivals Association (IOFA) came up when Dan Chiorboli (of Awesome Africa Music Festival in Durban), Yusuf Mahmoud (of Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar) and Alain Courbis (of the Pôle Régional des Musiques Actuelles (PRMA) of Reunion Island) met up in Reunion Island in 2004. The idea was to create a support and information exchange network that could help the circulation of artists or other cultural inputs (exhibitions, conferences etc.) as well as promote training and musical heritage conservation.

Twenty festivals or so had been listed and contacted in the region, all very interested in the project. A first draft presentation had been prepared for the World Music Exhibition (WOMEX) which was being held in Essen (Germany) that year.

Favourable contacts had then taken place with the Management of WOMEX and other international networks, such as the European Forum of World Music Festivals (EFWMF) which deals with around sixty festivals in Europe. However, it had not been possible to go deeper into the project for several reasons: uncertainty of certain still too recent events, lack of funding to launch actions and to communicate, costs of air transports in the region to organise encounters and lack of time among the various participants for them to benefit from co-ordination follow-ups. In brief, as interesting as it was, the idea of an IOFA was premature at that stage.

Since then, some events have actually disappeared; others have become consolidated, while others still have been professionalized and have endeavoured to open up to the world. The musical creation of the region has also strongly evolved. The time is now probably right to revive this project and to concretise it officially so as to face the new challenges of the international music market. Beyond their own programming issues, all event managers feel concerned about the promotion of their country’s music – whether or not traditional – and that of the region in general.

The idea was revived when the regional association Conseil des musiques de l'océan Indien (CMOI) was officially created in September 2008. The CMOI gathers music professionals from Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mayotte and will gather more from other countries of the region in the near future, to envisage co-operation projects as with the Conseil Francophone de la Chanson in particular, an international network based in Brussels whose members are all members of the CMOI. Resuming contact has been positive, particularly with South African festival organisers during the PRMA visits, to attend the Moshito Music Conference held in Johannesburg in September 2008. Contact by mail has also been positive with other countries or during the various encounters at the last WOMEX held in October 2008 in Seville (Spain), with 2 500 professionals from around the globe.

Meeting on 1st and 2nd of May in Johannesburg, South Africa would make it possible to lay the foundations of what is to come with, as first objective during the first year, to know participants better and to discover their potentials and needs with a view to building up projects that will concern all or part of the members. Also in the pipeline is a project of Indian Ocean Music Market which is under study by the team of the Sakifo Musik Festival of Reunion Island, and for which the existence of this network could represent an advantage

The first concrete action is to complete a bilingual document presenting – by means of practical and illustrated cards – all the festivals that are already subscribing to the project, waiting for other festivals that could not be contacted to join us. This document will be distributed in all the professional and institutional networks of the countries from which members originate, in other countries in the region as well as in world networks and in professional events as important as WOMEX, Bab El Med Music, MOSHITO or MIDEM. This document will be a very useful tool for becoming acquainted with and acknowledging the various members and the actual network, so as to further co-operation. Networking will also require the creation of a website representative of the wealth of participants, so as to open up more to the world.

The discussions taking place during the encounter in South Africa will make it possible to set up a framework for the years to come. Between 15 and 20 festivals have been approached so far to be represented at the first encounter and concern the following countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Reunion Island, Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte, Rodriguez and Madagascar.

To go further into the reflexions about regional cooperation in the field of musics we propose to open the meeting to the music professionnals interested by these actions and not only to festivals leaders.

Contacts:
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