In the framework of the Capacity building Global Youth Advocacy, the festival “Andar por Casa“, held in Oviedo, was a chance for the hosting organisation to show and share an example of good practice.
The story
The festival, born in 2009 from an idea of a group of six young people coming from Avilés, took place since then (with just a couple of years of interruction, due to logistic reasons). It consists in a tour across private houses: the owners open their doors to the people of the community, in order to share different kinds of experiences.
During these years, people had the chance to enjoy activities such as theater, short films, performances, concerts, cooking or gardening lessons etc. People walk around the city, enter a house participating to the festival and are welcome to take part in the activity held inside. Moreover, to get into the mood, part of the play implies also being dressed up in comfy clothes, like pajamas, slippers, dressing gowns and rollers in the hair or night caps – a sort of “my place is your place”.
The goal
Goal of the activity is to break down the barriers between private and public space for one night, to stimulate the cultural and artistic life of the community and to foster the relations between different people, groups and youth organisations.
Global Youth Advocacy in Oviedo
This year, in spite of the pouring rain, the three routes of the festival led the young participants of the Global Youth Advocacy capacity building (together with many people from Oviedo) to cooking lessons, Tarot reading, ballet performances and much more. It was a chance to know more in deep the local life and customs, and to learn how to respect and share at the same moment spaces that are normally closed to strangers.
That’s the best outcome of the festival: although you are in a home you’ve never been before and you’ll probably never visit again, you don’t get to feel like a stranger.
