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Violence versus serenity: Serene Assir attends another music festival
On Sunday Egyptian volunteers saw their dream come true as Samaa Hoss (Hush), a music festival condemning terrorism, took El-Sawi Cultural Centre by storm. Some 2,500 people attended the free-admission, six-hour-long event, to which no less than nine local bands contributed free of charge.
Adding to the festive atmosphere, the event was held in the relatively new River Hall: a predominantly young crowd filled the outdoor area, making themselves comfortable on the grass, listening to music by the Nile, and getting up to dance when the songs became more upbeat. All in all, the atmosphere was vibrant, relaxed and varied, even as opposition to political violence remained loud and clear.
"When a group of artists and NGO workers approached me with the idea of holding this festival at the centre," Mohamed El-Sawi, owner and director of El-Sawi, recounted, "I thought it was a fantastic idea. It seemed to me like a great way to show that the vast majority of Egyptians are opposed to violence as a means to furthering a political agenda. None of the organisers has a political or religious agenda of their own, so the concept is purely civil; people of all backgrounds are able to join in and express how they feel about terrorism, this very negative phenomenon that's generating fear and hatred everywhere in the world."
Jonas Naguib, one of the festival organisers, agreed: "The idea originated as something collective, among a group of friends who thought we had to take a stand on the Arab world, openly condemn terrorism -- we have to stop being silent about it. We realise the festival itself will resolve nothing -- it can't. But we also know we have to show people all over Egypt, and indeed all over the world, that we're against terror."
The festival opened in the early evening, with Egyptian bands of greater or lesser fame taking to the stage one by one, and affording mini concerts as samples of their work to an ever more eager crowd. Veterans of the Egyptian alternative music scene came later on at night; they included West Al-Balad, Fathi Salama and Karima Nayt as well as Shirbini Ahmed, who is known in music circles for his political music. Newer bands, including Consperience and Logha Rhythm played early on, seizing the opportunity to express opposition to political violence and to air their sounds at a popular venu of El-Sawi's stature.
While Consperience played slow jazz, Eftekasat -- a band whose cache in Cairo is on the rise -- played precisely what their name promised: inventive improvisations on various styles, with lead guitarist Uso definitely providing the most remarkable input of their part of the evening. Their lead singer, who was only on stage for the very first part of their performance, spoke briefly about the need to develop a culture of greater tolerance; they even sang a 1980s- style soft pop song urging the audience to listen to "your God who tells you to change and create your own destiny, oh humanity."
Halfway into the evening, as a young man elbowed his way through the crowds, holding hands with his girlfriend, he was heard telling her, "You'll find that the vast majority of people here have come specifically for West Al-Balad." Regular performers at After Eight and the Cairo Jazz Club, West Al-Balad delighted the audience with a short performance that constituted the entry point into the second half of the event -- three pure concerts, without intervention by the presenters emphasising the anti-terror message of the evening. A little disappointingly, but perhaps because it was expected that they would constitute the highlight of the evening, the quality of their performance's sound and light was significantly better.
On contributing to the festival as a whole, one of the band singers, Ismail, said, "We don't fight with weapons, we fight with love." Shortly after the performance, lead singer Adham confided that the reason West Al-Balad agreed to perform was because they strongly feel that political violence and "the killing of innocent people are by no means an acceptable way of furthering an agenda or expressing a viewpoint".
The audience was, on the whole, excited to be there. For some, satisfaction derived from the fact that they felt they were contributing to driving home the political message against violence. "It's great that something of this kind is being held in Egypt -- it could even be the start of a new wave, like Live Aid was," Suraya, a university student, announced. Khulud, another student, agreed: "The best thing about this festival is that it has brought all kinds of people and opinions together -- to voice concern over something as complex as political violence. The fact that they've put up these white billboards for us to write on is also really good, because it urges us to express ourselves -- an opportunity that young people are usually denied under the present political system, loaded with censorship as it is."
Voices of dissent were widely heard. Among them was Ahmed, yet another student: "I am against the whole idea from start to finish -- how can you condemn political violence without understanding its causes?" But perhaps that was the festival's greatest achievement, to create an atmosphere that urges participation and expression by everyone in an environment free of fear. "Sure," West Al-Balad's Adham added. "This is as important a social and political cause as any other. If a festival focussing on other deep-rooted problems in local and regional politics is organised, count on me to be there."
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