US, British music bloggers here on weeklong visit

Five leading American and British music bloggers will be traipsing around the country next week in an intense crash course in all things musically Israeli.

The trip is part of Vibe Israel, a project designed by Kinetis, a young Tel Avivbased advocacy organization that aims to promote Israel as a vibrant and inspirational source of creativity and innovation.

Previous Vibe Israel trips have focused on ‘mommy bloggers’ and design bloggers.

The music bloggers, who arrive on Friday, include popular writers like Rebecca Schiller of the New Musical Express from London, New York’s Samantha Edussuriya of MTV Iggy, Luke Britton of This Fake/DIY from the UK, Rory Hamilton of Feel My Bicep from Scotland, and Brandon Bogajewicz of The Burning Ear, blogging from California.

Collectively, they boast over nine million readers.

“Through Vibe Israel, we can show the world Israel’s originality and in doing so, help improve its image,” said Kinetis founder Joanna Landau, a British Israeli who launched the organization in 2009.

“We’re not attempting to present the country as a utopia but rather to emphasis its qualities that make it unique.”

Landau stressed that the trips don’t deal with political advocacy, but rather encourage the participants to talk to Israelis who they meet and form their own opinions, and in the process, dis covering that there is diversity, even politically, in the country.

The music bloggers will be indeed meeting a diverse group of Israeli musicians, including Koby Farhi, the frontman for Orphaned Land, Idan Raichel and Ivry Lider. The group will also attend a Purim show by Mashina and Infected Mushroom in Tel Aviv. In addition, the bloggers will tour parts of the country, including Jerusalem’s Old City and the Negev.

The Kinetis model targets popular online bloggers, whose posts, tweets and Facebook status updates are read around the world.

“Such third-party endorsements have a reverberating impact across communities, serving to bring Israel, its creative attributes and competitive edge, to people who may otherwise not be exposed to Israel and its unique offering,” the organization writes on its website. “Our tours generate significant on and offline ‘buzz’... and offer followers of our guests a glimpse into Israeli reality behind what they see on the news and media.”