Memoirs of the 1st Finland Bachata Festival

When Vesa Parkarri approached me--after teaching a workshop at the Swedish Bachata Festival last May 2008--saying, "I would like to bring you to Finland to teach the traditional based bachata style," I thought he was just thinking aloud. After all, I have met some individuals that have offered the same thing with no "follow-through."

But Vesa is a different gentleman, a straight-forward, tell-it-like-it-is Finnish. They don't call him El Amabajador de la Bachata for nothing by the Dominicans, a gentleman who have helped the Dominicans in more ways than one over the years and a man that truly appreciate the culture of the Dominican Republic (DR). Dominican Press gave the name El Embajador de la Bachata (Bachata Ambassador) to Vesa, because he did the great cultural act of heroism by bringing 13 people Bachata band from Dominican Republic to Tampere Finland. Being an ambassador, he has also done diplomatic arrangements by organizing Bachata stars to the European Embassy parties in Santo Domingo. He has been to DR 12 times for a period of 18 years.


So to my surprise, a few months ago, I got several emails from him inviting me to the 1st Finland Bachata Festival in Tampere.



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