Enchanted Harmonies: Weaving Magic with Music and Marionettes

In the framework of the events of the Patronus Carnival 2025 and in an effort to enrich the Children’s Carnival with new and exuberant events concerning the wider creativity of children, KEDIP-Patras Carnival is going to organize three important actions: Children’s Song Festival, Educational Action on “Writing and illustrating fairy tales” (Creative writing and fairy tale writing workshops) and Puppet Festival entitled “The Heroes of Nature”. All three actions will be carried out in collaboration with the Directorate of Primary Education of Achaia.

Children’s Song Festival

The festival, which will take place in February 2025, is aimed at the level of participation of the members of the educational community of the primary schools of Achaia, the children’s choirs, the conservatories and the non-profit clubs of the city that deal with children in order to become composers of music. who themselves would like to hear and revive the children’s song. It is a revival of an institution that started in Patras in 1996 and aimed to create an original musical culture, which would permeate all the activities of the Children’s Carnival and would be the creation of the city’s children themselves.

The duration of participation in the Festival is determined from October 2024 to February 2025. The right to participate will be school choirs, children’s choirs, children’s vocal ensembles, regardless of the number of choirs as well as soloists, up to 12 years of age and participation requires physical presence. The application for participation will be submitted by the teachers of the school units/choir directors to [e-mail] until December 16, 2024, at 12:00 pm. Late participation declarations will not be accepted.

For the school units, only the applications for participation will be made through the electronic form:

The application must be accompanied by a simultaneous transmission in pdf format of a full orchestration (voices-instruments), score-guide with the music and lyrics together and on a separate page the lyrics only, a rough performance of the song, a short 50-word presentation of class/choir/soloist and a photograph of the class/choir/soloist. Student works must be the creation of one school only, and choirs may enter only one song per ensemble for reasons of equal participation.

A total of 10 prizes will be awarded: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for Music Creation, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for Lyrics, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for Presentation, and a special jury award. All participants will receive a commendation of participation from a 7-member Jury consisting of renowned people in the arts. The evaluation criteria that will be taken into account by the Jury will be: Sound quality and homogeneity, Tonal performance (intonation), Musical communication between conductor and choir, Originality and ingenuity in the way of presentation.

“Writing and illustrating fairy tales”

Student groups of Primary Education 4th – 6th grade of Primary school can take part. Participating teachers and their students will attend live creative writing and illustration workshops. The workshops will have a limit of participants and for this reason a priority order of expression of interest will be observed. The action includes 3 Creative Writing workshops for teachers who will engage with student groups and submit produced works. An e-book with free access may result from the students’ produced works. The creative writing workshops are organized live, with no participation fee.

The action will last from October 2024 to February 2025 and includes:

-Training of the teachers who will be involved with student groups of 4th-5th Grade and will submit produced projects. The training will take place in the area of ​​the Old Slaughterhouses, with Creative Writing workshops and illustration workshops.

-Writing by student groups original fairy tales with the main theme of Carnival

– Illustrating a fairy tale by student groups

Participation in the action includes two stages:

– Submission of an application for participation (in the online form of the DPE Achaia/Cultural Issues: by October 11, 2024 by teachers who can implement the action in grades 4 to 6 of Primary School

-Send to [e-mail] (or deliver to the offices of KEDIP: Akti Dymaion 84, 263 33 Patras, tel.: [phone] and 2610 390910) of the works produced by the students by Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at 12 noon :00pm

Each group of students can participate with only one project.

Participating student groups can come in person to present their fairy tale (in whatever way they choose) at the Carnival themed Fairy Tale Celebration Day which will take place at the Old Abattoirs in February 2024.
Participation Awards will be given to all participating students.

Marionette Festival

It is organized by KEDIP – Patras Carnival in collaboration with the Directorate of Primary Education of Achaia – Environmental Education. The puppet, with a history that comes from Ancient Greece and travels to the present day, will be the means to highlight values ​​related to our natural environment and the necessity of protecting it. The purpose of the festival is for the participating student groups to create their own puppets with “waste” materials from the environment (natural or recyclable), reinforcing the idea of ​​reuse, and then they will be animated into characters that propose solutions and act for the sake of the natural environment , they will become in a few words “the Heroes of Nature”.

The festival involves the participation of students from public and private Kindergartens and Primary Schools of the Municipality of Patreon.

The action will last 5 months (October 2024- February 2025). Entries cannot exceed 15 in order to be properly and efficiently supported. Each student group can participate with one or two produced projects. The puppets to be created must be 70-150 cm tall. Participating/participating teachers undertake to deliver the works produced by their students by January 14, 2025. to KEDIP – Patras Carnival, Akti Dymaion 84, Patras 263 33, tel.: [phone] and 2610 390910, email: info@carnivalpatras. Gr. All the works will be presented as part of the events of the Patronus Carnival 2025.

KEDIP – Patras Carnival in collaboration with the Directorate of Primary Education of Achaia – Environmental Education will support the action, as follows:

-with two educational meetings for teachers, of a laboratory-experiential nature, regarding the history, construction and animation of the puppet (October 2024),

– with the training of teachers – presentation of the traditional way of making floats and puppets (design, styrofoam carving, mapping, etc.) at the Carnival Workshop of the Municipality of Patreon,

-with a presentation of the produced works in the children’s Carnival Towns of the Children’s Carnival 2025,

-with an exhibition of all the projects in an exhibition space at the headquarters of KEDIP (Old Slaughterhouses), and

-with supporting work meetings for the participating schools, throughout the duration of the action (October 2024 – February 2025).

*Both in the Children’s Song and Puppet Festivals, as well as in the Educational Action on “Writing and illustrating fairy tales”, the consent of parents and guardians is required for the participation of students.