Polish Woodstock Takes a New Direction
This year’s Woodstock in Poland was billed as Europe’s largest open-air music event with 52 rock bands plus Warsaw’s Philharmonic Orchestra, to add a touch of culture. The fields are filled to capacity with an ocean of tents and more than 300,000 young people and, under the leadership of Indradyumna Swami, ISKCON had a large presence.
This year Jurek Owsiak, the main organizer of the event, decided to take the festival in a new direction in order to encourage the youth to achieve positive goals. Devotees were scheduled to speak about spiritual science, ayurvedic medicine, devotional yoga, and solutions to environmental problems.
When the Indian Ambassador to Poland, His Excellency Chandra Mohan Bhandari, heard about the new direction Woodstock was taking, he expressed his eagerness to promote India’s culture among the youth of Poland. The Ambassador decided to spend the entire three days of Woodstock participating in ISKCON’s Village of Peace.
At the opening ceremony on the main stage before a bustling crowd of 150,000, Jurek invited Indradyumna Swami and the Ambassador to the front of the stage as the crowd cheered.
That evening the Ratha-yatra parade was featured on Poland’s main television news channel. Viewers saw the Lord’s smiling face and enthusiastic devotees loudly chanting His holy names.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
