IYF 2010

Atlantic Bridge’s 17th annual International Youth Festival!

The International Youth Festival takes place in a different country and setting each year and the theme is also different. This year it took place from August 1 - 7 in the beautiful medieval town of Koszeg, Hungary. Participants came from Iceland, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Angola, Nigeria and Austria.

THE THEME: FOLLOW THE KARAVAAN!

from the days of the OREGON TRAIL

We took the OREGON TRAIL of the 19th century as a backdrop for the festival, blending the rugged life of the trail into a challenging mission to build bridges. Let the pictures tell the story.

We started building our covered wagons on the first day during the small groups. Each small group had its own wagon.

But rain kept on destroying what was built up and a feeling of defeat set in. Why do we need to waste our time on building these stupid wagons?

All of those negative thoughts disappeared on Thursday evening when we marched as a 'wagon train'' into town and surprised the town of Koszeg with an innovative and energetic youth show in the middle of their historic celebrations.

It became the highlight of the week!

Up front were the Hytha family from Phoenixville PA, with Rob on the sax or on the bongo's. All week long they were the musical glue that charged us up and inspired us to sing together.

It was hard to say goodbye to them on Saturday Aug 7

WE DID SOME STRANGE THINGS DURING THIS WEEK !

An Icelandic girl playing football?

Feeding ourselves from a pig trough!

And what is this, a dance?

Some came from the land of ice and glaciers not knowing what to expect. With big smiles they returned to Iceland, talking about coming back next year. And when can we plan to do a festival in Iceland? They showed us how great a place it would be for such a festival!