In photos: State-run drumming and folk arts fest impresses, but could be more

Masses of people walked along the pathway leading up to Cairo’s Citadel of Saladin, and sounds of drumming from a traditional Egyptian marching band could be heard. The historic site had been transformed into a home for a festival aiming to celebrate peace and global traditional performing arts.

Thousands gathered to see the opening performances of the fourth International Festival for Drumming and Traditional Arts last Wednesday, by troupes from 21 countries and all the far corners of Egypt.

The festival, supported by the Culture Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Antiquities, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, and the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform, is directed and founded by Intessar Abdel-Fattah, a researcher into folk arts who has worked at several Culture Ministry spaces, such as the National Centre for Theater and the Al-Ghouri Creativity Center. He has also supported the founding of several folk troupes.

Since Wednesday's opening, the festival has been bringing audiences to various venues, including a massive turnout for a parade down Islamic Cairo's historic Moez Street. Its daily activities continue through Monday at the Citadel, Qobet al-Ghouri, Hanager Theater, Amir Taz Palace and Talaat Harb Cultural Center in Cairo, but also in Benha, Port Said and Qanater.

The festival opened with a welcome note followed by speeches from the culture and antiquities ministers, introducing the festival's guest of honor, India, along with Egyptian cultural figures the festival was honoring.

The opening performance was quick-paced, largely improvised and led by Abdel-Fattah, who has great stage presence. The troupes gathered on stage and started with a collaborative drumming performance that had resulted from a joint workshop. Then Abdel-Fattah introduced each troupe, who each took over the stage for a two-minute music and dance performance. Interludes included more collective performing and the audience seemed completely captivated throughout the hour and half.

It was a treat to catch folk performances from all over the world. Troupes seemed to come from everywhere, including Malaysia, China, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Romania, Switzerland, Tunisia, Senegal, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. The festival also assembles performers from all over Egypt, encapsulating the country's cultural diversity with performances from locations including Port Said, Toshka, Arish, Gharbia, Mallawi and Qena.

While the festival is certainly a success in its performances and boasts a truly diverse audience spanning several social classes and ages, I found myself looking through the catalogue and program after the opening, yearning for more.

This is because seems to be a somewhat wasted opportunity to focus only on the festive side of folk arts. With so many talented performers from all over the world and the country gathered in Cairo for a week, it would be a wonderful opportunity for workshops, symposia and talks for the public and other performers to gain a deeper understanding into the artistic and socio-political contexts these performers operate in. Healthy dialogues and collaborations could emerge between the Egyptian troupes, and regional or international collaborations could come up from a facilitated discussion.

Models such as the Nile Project – which brings together Nile Basin musicians for residencies, performances and workshops – could be a good one for how the Festival for Drumming and Tradional Arts could develop. I realise that these are projects with different targets, but a festival with this level of state support, audience numbers and performance success has potential to dig deeper into folk arts and really become a platform for deeper exploration of its core message: “Drums Dialogue for Peace”

It's been hard to locate an online program, but here's a photo of the printed one.

All photos by Rowan El Shimi.