Barents Youth will rock for rights
Halvard Rundberg og Ylva Maria Pavval, organizers of the Reggae, Rock and Rights Tour.
Halvard Rundberg from northern Norway and Ylva Maria Pavval from northern Sweden believe there is a vivid and very much alive Barents identity. Others say that this is just a concept created by politicians selling their visions, but Rundberg and Pavval can say the opposite because they meet it every day, travelling all over the Barents Region.
– Many of the youth we meet say that they feel a common identity with others in this giant region. The only thing is that they do not know what it is called. So we just give them a name for something which is already there, says Rundberg.
Peace project#1173318
The Reggae, rock and rights tour 2011 will be based on the common identity and the similarities of youth in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. A border crossing peace project where human rights issues will be the fundament of the tour, with music as the common language for all youths.
The idea to arrange a rock tour was born on a Barents Youth Council meeting in 2008. Rundberg and Pavval took the idea into practice and are now were neat the finish line. With support from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat among several others, the two initiators have arranged workshops all over the Barents Region. Here youths are invited to present their ideas on what the Reggae, rock and rights tour should be.
– We would like to find a concept which can be adapted to all four countries, and which still grasps the diversity of the region, says Pavval.
On their way, the project managers document the entire process of creating a tour like this. The main motivation for doing this is for others to use this knowledge to create similar tours in the future.
Secretary General of the Norwegian Barents secretariat, Rune Rafaelsen, is very impressed of what the youths have accomplished so far. He believes that the Barents Region is no limit for this concept.
– A youth tour like this could also be adapted to other border regions. Therefore the work you do now is not only important for youth cooperation in the Barents Region, but also for other border regions all over the world, says Rafaelsen.
Media attention#1173330
The two project managers have an aim that the tour will make a difference. Therefore they are also in dialogue with the Swedish chairmanship of the Barents Euro Arctic Council, to find ways in which they can better reach decision makers of the north with their message.
– We have gotten a lot of media attention about our project and all say that they are very interested and excited about our plans, says Rundberg and show several news stories about the project.
In the following months the workshops will be completed. Then they will start the work on the actual tour contents, based on the information given in the six workshops. The tour will consist of a show which will be the same on all destinations, and then each destination will have an additional local program. All destinations will have human rights issues as the central theme.
It is quite a job to organize a tour through 13 counties, but Rundberg and Pavval's enthusiasm show that they will accomplish for sure. The kick off for the tour is already set. It will be during the Barents Spektakel 2011 festival in Kirkenes.