Last weekend the festival of the East in Rome ended after having cheered the inhabitants of the Capital for two weekends.
Obviously we could not miss this event that aims to disseminate the culture of a part of the world very dear to us: that east that we constantly urge you to deepen through disciplines such as yoga, meditation or tai-chi, or by illustrating medical sciences more ancient like Ayurvedic medicine or traditional Chinese medicine or, finally, providing you with samples of philosophical systems very different from the Western one.
In short, after the experience of last year, on time, we returned to explore this great event.
What we liked about the 2015 Oriental Festival:
Without a doubt, the aspiration of this event is, in our opinion, ambitious, but at the same time enormously fascinating: wanting to give the western visitor the atmosphere and the magic of a fabulous east, dripping with beauty and culture . An opportunity to get out of the egocentrism typical of our part of the world to let oneself be filled with wonder thanks to the enchantment that these cultures can give us.
The offer of the event was certainly powerful: three pavilions were made available to accommodate the large amount of "material". From restaurants to shows, from bazaars to exhibitors, so many countries have seen themselves represented and have been able to give a taste of their artistic, artisan or gastronomic heritage.
Many Roman schools and centers have had the opportunity to approach a large slice of the public which, in turn, has been able to learn about innovative or very exotic disciplines: two universes have been touched (which is anything but easy in the context metropolitan) with curiosity and mutual availability giving life to potentially fruitful and stimulating encounters.
What we liked least about the 2015 Oriental Festival:
This festival has turned out to be an ephemeral exposure of the East for western consumers . A lot of scenography and little cultural depth have given a rather empty image, in cultural terms, of very deep civilizations often reduced to folkloristic spots. A monument to the most superficial orientalism that unfortunately we cannot share.
If the "quantity" of the material presented was certainly impressive, the "quality" was more disappointing . The choice of the topics of the conferences can be more or less acceptable, but many exhibitors of totally incongruous commercial products with respect to the theme appeared to be decidedly out of place. Moreover, in terms of commercial offer, the level was - in general - relatively low, with stalls mostly similar to each other, with goods of little value and no claims.
The commercial intent behind this event is constantly under the visitor's eyes and, ultimately, the experience at the Festival of the East is rather expensive . Not so much for the initial ticket, but for the whole that does not offer any economic advantage in terms of purchase (as could be assumed given that it is a themed event) nor for the tasting of the kitchen where we found a quality-price ratio often unsatisfactory.
General considerations on the Festival of the East
Clearly, mixing aspirations with pragmatism is always difficult, especially for a gigantic event like the Festival of the East. We always advise you to drop by, maybe at the next edition, because the emotional dive can still be an impact, especially for a novice.
We advise you to smell the scents, to enjoy the colors, to appreciate the beauty that this event exhibits; but above all, we advise you then to go out and go to the first bookshop you find and savor the East through one of the many very valid texts on the market able to let you experience that seduction through literature, philosophy, art and the history that characterizes these cultures.
