mother of all samba meetups

forwarded announcement from Jair Martins de Miranda, Samba Global Project:

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Dear Samba Lovers,

This month I will be submitting the project for the 4th International Encontro of Sambistas to the Brazilian Cultural Ministry, which is scheduled for the next Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro between the 20 - 28 February 2009.

Like previous meetings, I am always thinking about the possibility of maximising the number of foreign sambistas and samba groups in the event and I yet I acknowledge the financial restrictions and the known difficulties that the majority of the groups have in terms of paying for travel and accommodation in Rio during this period.

For this 4th meeting, however, I discovered that there exists a possibility. I was informed by the Cultural Ministry that there exists a programme in the European Union to finance iniciatives which promote cultural intercambios between Europeans and Brasil for the next 2 years. Vacancies are open only until 1 June. More information about this can be found on the following site:
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/culture/calls2008/strand_1_3/index_en.htm .

This being the case through this possibility of tickets and accommodation being paid for by this programme, I am inviting groups that are interested in this 4th Encontro to also participate in CRIAR (NGO who organize the Encontro), as partners of the project together with the European Union, indicating the official name of the group, the numbers of participants and their home town.

Please contact me should you have any doubts or queries, preferebly outside this list.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Jair Martins de Miranda
Samba Global Project
4К International Encontro of Sambistas Coordinator