Third edition of Wanas festival to kick off in Nov

CAIRO – 10 October 2017: The third edition of the Wanas Festival for Egyptian Folk Arts, organized by El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music will kick off on November 9 at the Greek Campus Cairo, and will last until November 11.

Germany and the Netherlands are among the countries that will participate in the festival.

The Egyptian bands who will perform in the festival are Mostafa Rizk, the Afro-Egyptian band Hawidro, El Tanbura, the Bedouin band Aljarkan, the Nubian band Nubanor, the Sudanese band Rango and the Sea Youth band.

El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music is a civil society organization founded by musician Zakaria Ibrahim in 2000, aiming to introduce and present world music locally and internationally and increase awareness of the richness and diversity of traditional music in Egypt.

The center usually focuses on the lyre instrument, simsimeya, and damma music from Port Said and the Suez Canal region. It also focuses on the music of Rango, originating from Sudan, the Egyptian Zar rituals, and Bedouin music from the Sinai Peninsula.

Mastaba has four regular weekly concerts presented by the 11 bands of the Mastaba Network such as Rango, El Tanbura, El Hinna, El Waziry and Nubanour. Each represents the diverse traditions in Egypt including Bedouin, Sufi, Nubian, Delta, Upper Egyptian, Sudanese and the Canal Zone.

The first edition of the festival kicked off in 2014 and included three-day events and workshops that showcased local folk bands as well as three international bands from France, Scotland and the Netherlands.