Dancers and Musicians Get Audiences Moving at CRASHfest in Boston

 A rich tapestry of global culture at World Music/CRASHarts’s third annual festival of international performing arts.

Posted:
3/16/2018

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:

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New York City's first all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache, kick off the festivities on the CRASHfest main stage.


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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.


 

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Maure Aronson, founder and executive director of World Music/CRASHarts, introduces Malian singer and guitarist, 
Vieux Farka Touré

 

 

IMG_8785-CRASHfest.jpgMalian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, who appeared to be one of the stronger draws to the main stage.

 

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Brazilian dance ensemble SambaAiva teaches the crowd how to "party like a Brazilian."

 

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Zimbabwean sextet Mokoomba's synchronized dance moves appeared particularly popular with the audience

 

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The audience gets younger (and on the whole drunker) as the evening wears on and 
Zimbabwean Afropop sextet Mokoomba takes stage.

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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.