Golden Festival 2012 Press Release

Link to Word Document:  TBD

For Immediate Release

Golden Festival 2012, www.goldenfest.org
Experience the Vibrant Musical Traditions of the Balkans
Sponsored by Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band
NYC’s Festival of Music and Dance from the Balkans and Beyond
Friday & Saturday, Jan. 13th & 14th, Grand Prospect Hall, Brooklyn NY

Contact: Emerson Hawley
info@goldenfest.org
(718) 859 4759

TimeOutNY 2011 critics’ pick: “Boogie your heart out to border defying Balkan tunes at this yearly festival”, “the city’s biggest Balkan bash”
David Byrne: “New York’s only music and dance festival of its kind”, “The time signatures in some of their music were beyond complicated, but it grooved at the same time.”

The Zlatne Uste Golden Festival, New York’s biggest Balkan music event and showcase, is back in Brooklyn for its 27th anniversary, January 13th and 14th, 2012 at Grand Prospect Hall, a spectacularly restored historic landmark in Park Slope. All music is live. Friday night starts with an hour long dance workshop at 7:30, then continues with music and dance until 12:30 am. The festival resumes at 6 pm Saturday and doesn’t wind down until early Sunday morning.

It’s too early to say exactly what’s in store this year, but last year’s festival boasted 71 separate performances, Saturday on 4 concurrent stages. Groups played and sang Albanian, Bulgarian, Romany (Gypsy), Macedonian, Serbian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Klezmer, Ukrainian, Georgian music, and more. The schedule will be posted on the festival website. Dancing is encouraged; no prior experience is required.

Enjoy unusual rhythms, mouth watering Balkan refreshments, and fine folk arts vendors. Enter a community where young and old, corporate and artsy, professional and enthusiast, hipster and folk dancer come together through a shared love of music. Join a circle and dance hand in hand with the friends you came with, and the friends you haven’t met yet. Find a world in NYC you didn’t know existed by taking the R train to Prospect Ave., or letting the valet park your car in the on site lot, and transport yourself to an exhilarating event. It’s a once in a lifetime experience that happens every year.

Entrance to the festival is $25 for Friday and $50 for Saturday. All the musicians volunteer their time. Any profits are donated to charitable or educational organizations serving Balkan cultures and communities.

Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band (www.zlatneuste.org) founded the Golden Festival in 1986 and has sponsored it ever since. Zlatne Uste is formed of American born musicians who play the ebullient brass music steeped in the traditions of Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Northern Greece. In 2010 the band made their 5th trip to the Dragačevo Brass Festival in Guča, Serbia, after which they studied with Romani musicians in South Serbia.  They have traveled from Brazil to Canada and coast to coast, where they play for American and Balkan audiences. Zlatne Uste has released four CDs and is featured in an upcoming full length documentary by Meerkat Media Collective (www.brasslands.com).

Grand Prospect Hall, 263 Prospect Avenue, between 5th and 6th Aves, Brooklyn, NY
Friday, Jan 13th, 7:30 pm – 12:30 am; Admission: $25, students with ID $20
Saturday, Jan 14th, 6 pm – 2 am; Admission: $50, students: $40
Two Night Festival Admission: $70, students $55
Children 12 and under: free
Discounts for advance online purchase via the website, www.goldenfest.org
Complimentary Balkan & Middle Eastern Snacks/Cash Bar
Subway: R to Prospect Ave. Limited on site valet parking $10
Facebook: Golden Festival 2012