World Music/CRASHarts, one of the organizations participating in Wallace’s
Building Audiences for Sustainability initiative, held its third annual CRASHfest on Saturday, February 24. CRASHfest is a celebration of music, dance, food and culture from around the world. It is also World Music/CRASHarts’s flagship event to help attract younger audiences to the
extensive series of performances it presents every year.
A detailed account of CRASHfest and its role in the organization’s audience-development efforts is due this fall. But that’s too long to wait to post some of the photos we took at the event:
New York City's first all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache, kick off the festivities on the CRASHfest main stage.
Subject:Matter, a local tap dance company, wow the crowd on a bump-out stage in the main hall. The bump-out stage,
new to CRASHfest in 2018, kept crowds entertained as bands set up on the main stage.
Maure Aronson, founder and executive director of World Music/CRASHarts, introduces Malian singer and guitarist,
Vieux Farka Touré
Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, who appeared to be one of the stronger draws to the main stage.
Brazilian dance ensemble SambaAiva teaches the crowd how to "party like a Brazilian."
Zimbabwean sextet Mokoomba's synchronized dance moves appeared particularly popular with the audience
The audience gets younger (and on the whole drunker) as the evening wears on and
Zimbabwean Afropop sextet Mokoomba takes stage.
Two music fans look for a spot to add their photo-booth picture to the Boston skyline.
One in the background poses alongside hers.
Interested in how other arts organizations are trying to build their audiences? See other BAS Stories here.