The celebration of the Hebrew singer in Netanya will reach its peak at the beginning of next month with the traditional festival that celebrates 6 years and will include the best artists alongside original productions and tribute evenings to creators and cultural figures, some of whom have recently passed away. Tzipi Lifshitz, director of the events department at the Netanya Culture Hall association: “The audience votes with their feet and the Hebrew singer is alive and kicking.” All the shows and attractions are inside
Artists who will perform at Festivki 2022
Open your diaries: between August 8-10, the large and traditional Hebrew singer celebration will take place in Netanya – the vocal festival that will be held in the city for the sixth year in a row.
The two main events will be held at Amphi Desha next to the Ir Yamim mall: the first, which will be held on August 9, will be the celebration of 55 years of creativity for Danny Sanderson, who will host Mazi Cohen. The second, a day later, will be marked by a one-time original production specially prepared for the festival, in the form of a tribute to the works of the poet and songwriter Yoram Teharlev, who was hosted at the previous festival and died in early January of this year.
The evening of the grandiose tribute, which will be called “May the sun pass over me”, will be accompanied by Simpont Ra’anana conducted by Dodi Zeba, one of the most talented conductors in his field. The tone will be set on stage by Shimon Buskila, Miri Aloni, Claire Ben David, Yehuda Elias the Netanya, as well as two opera singers, in beautiful and original combinations of the variety of Teharlev’s works. Alongside them will appear the representative local band ‘Briza’ and this multi-faceted cast will be dominated by the actress and singer Galit Giat, who will combine directing with singing.
In addition to this, another complex will be opened in Yamim in the Eric Einstein Cultural Hall in Yamim, where a popular band will be held at 11:00 PM in the form of three tribute evenings: on 8/8 it will be an event called ‘Gotha Ha’af’ – the soundtrack to the life and films of Uri Zohar who passed away in June this year. The evening, which will include skits, excerpts from Zohar’s films and the best songs of Eric Einstein and the Lol band, will be hosted by Yoav Kutner, who is considered to be the Orim and the Thummy in Israeli music, and also a born star expatriate and resident of Netanya, Jako Eisenberg, will appear.
A day later, a tribute evening will be held for Legal Bashan and North Command bands for generations, in which the well-remembered Yonatan Miller from the ‘Hupah Hay’ band will appear, as well as Yehuda Elias, a member of North Command band. On 8/10, the series of tribute evenings will close with an event in honor of the Israel Prize laureate, Avihu Medina, which will be dedicated to the Mediterranean singer. The musical management was entrusted to the Netanyaite Vard Picker, while the director will be the actor Dan Shapira.
Symposium opens
And that’s not all. The opening event on the morning of 8/8, also at the Eric Einstein complex, will be a symposium moderated by Yoram Rotem from Galgaltz and with the participation of Yair Nitsani, Yoni Roea from Netanya, Suzy Miller and Galgaltz director Nadav Ravid, director of Galgaltz. The intriguing topic of the symposium: just a word in Hebrew? To write and sing in English or other languages - good or bad?
Another complex in the city of Yamim will of course have a piano, where every day it will host groups of singers from all over the country – from the Tamar Regional Council, through the nearby Pardesia and Eben Yehuda to Givat Ada – which is part of the tradition and the core of the Pasivokali. The events will be open to the public, and the innovation this year is that every day the event will be hosted by a major artist – on August 8 it will be Doron Mazar, on the 9th Uri Perez and on the 10th Vardina Cohen.
Ilan Gilboa was entrusted with the musical management of the entire pastival, along with the repertoire committee of the Netanya Cultural Center Association, which includes CEO Bnei Ephraim, Tzipi Lifshitz, director of the events department, as well as Irit Cohen-Rez, also from the events department of the association.
“We started the pastyvocal at the initiative of the mayor, who suggested putting the Hebrew singer in the center of the stage against the background of contemporary music and the youth who sometimes prefer foreign music,” Tzipi Lifshitz recalls. “We took her offer with both hands and the most natural place is, of course, the Ir Yamim neighborhood, where all the streets are named after prominent Israeli artists, from Benny Berman and Yossi Banai, for Bouzi Hitman and Ehud Manor, Shoshana Demari and others.”
On the importance of the Pastyvocal for the city in general and the Culture Hall association in particular, Lifshitz added: “The excitement is very great thanks to the fact that we are continuing the tradition we have built for six years, and still, with all the musical influences around, the Hebrew singer is alive and kicking and the audience comes and votes with their feet. It fills people, speaks to them and connects them. The event is considered an anchor in Netanya and is very important to our city. Beyond that, even at the national level it is fun and important to preserve this wonderful thing called a Hebrew singer, with original productions and an added value that is unique only to Pastyvocal.”