Festival Brought Back Spanish Spirit to Kaunas
VMU students invited everyone to the traditional Spanish culture spring festival Primavera en Español, which was organized at the university for the fourth time on 7–17 April. Kaunas residents and guests enjoyed a variety of events united by Spanish spirit and the theme “Spanish in the World: 25 Years at VMU”.
In the official opening event at VMU Aula Magna, the public was welcomed by the representatives of the Spanish Embassy and VMU, followed by heart-warming musical performances by the students of the VMU Music Academy. After the announcement of the start of Spanish spring, everyone was invited to a traditional banquet.
In 25 years since the revival of VMU, thousands of students have already studied Spanish. For many of them, ‘la lengua de Cervantes’ (the language of Cervantes) has become a symbol of success. Because of this, one of the festival’s key events was a cozy evening on 8 April with former and current VMU students who shared their inspiring stories about how Spanish helped them to fulfil their dreams and achieve their goals.
On 9 April, students, pupils and other participants of the festival showed off their creative side in the workshop “I Draw Spain”. Another event, a caricature ode to soap operas, aimed to bring back childhood memories and make the audience cry with laughter. The following day, a brand new event debuted in the festival: a social friendship campaign “Letters to Gambia”.
The second week of Primavera en Español offered the audience several opportunities to broaden their perspective. Lecturers from Spain and Lithuania shared everything they know about the history, popularity and advantages of the Spanish language. No less enlightening and entertaining were the Spanish Language and Culture Olympics and the short film night “Unidos en el Cine”: a screening of cinema shorts from all over the planet which invited viewers to look for parallels between the Hispanosphere and the rest of the world.
The festival’s closing ceremony on 17 April coincided with the 3rd birthday fiesta of the VMU Miguel de Cervantes Club. Everyone in the lobby of VMU Great Hall (28 S. Daukanto Str.) was captivated by the southern passion of the salsa dance: after a performance by professional dancers, other participants were welcome to learn the popular dance’s steps themselves. The fiesta concluded with the birthday cake and 100 colourful balloons which were launched to ascend high into the sky as a farewell until next year’s Spanish spring.
Primavera en Español was organized by the members of the Miguel de Cervantes Spanish Language and Culture Club and VMU Institute of Foreign Languages in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Lithuania.
Photo report by Jonas Petronis (j.petronis@vkt.vdu.lt)
