Afghans rock at first music festival in three decades

Live rock returned to Afghanistan after three long decades on Saturday 1 October, as young men and women cheered and leapt into the air to the sound of heavy bass beats and punk rock

Bands from Australia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan served up a six-hour musical feast of blues, indie, electronica and death metal to hundreds of fans, many of whom had never seen live music before.
Sound Central was something new in a deeply conservative Muslim country where music was banned under the austere Taliban regime. Even now music shops are attacked in some cities and musicians taunted for their clothes or hair.
A one-day "stealth festival" that organizers hope will draw 1,000 to 2,000 young Afghans, will be the first music festival the country has seen since it plunged into three decades of violence in the late 1970s.
Afghan bands playing music from doom death metal to blues rock will be joined by musicians who have flown in from across Central Asia -- Iran to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
"The real bottom-line aim of this festival is to ignite youth to be interested in modern music," said organizer Travis Beard, who dreamt up the festival four years ago, and has been working on it in earnest for the last two years.
"What we are trying to do is to expose them to new kinds of music so they can get into those styles of music, and also just start playing music. Hopefully we'll get some kids saying 'Hey this is really cool! Dad can I get a drum set?' or 'Mum can I get a guitar'," Beard said.
Beard is an Australian who first came to Afghanistan as a news photographer five years ago, joined a band in Kabul and rediscovered his love of music "after many years away."
As he started to meet Afghan musicians, he got involved in supporting them -- with instruments or a place to practice -- and the festival was inspired by the community they formed.
With that in mind, he organized not only the day-long festival, but a week of workshops for Afghan musicians, and underground pre-festival concerts for all the bands at the festival to play more experimental music to a committed crowd.
Security concerns means publicity has been mostly word of mouth, and the date has been kept deliberately vague. Messages revealing the time and venue will go out to music fans only on the morning of the event.
"It's been termed the first ever stealth festival in the world. So like a stealth bomber ... we are coming in under the radar, dropping a lot of music on the kids, and then flying out. The promotional side of it is very very small," Beard said.
He has also recruited international support for the festival, hoping to show the world a different side of the country he has made his home.
NEW EXPERIENCE
The music will almost certainly be a new experience for most of the audience in a country where people seeking a change from traditional Afghan music tend to listen to western pop or sound-tracks from India's big-hit Bollywood films.
The festival retained a distinctly Afghan accent, with alcohol banned, kebabs the only snacks and a respect for strong religious values amid the rock and roll.
Bands left the stage and the microphones were turned off twice in the late afternoon to allow the call to prayer to sound out uninterrupted from nearby mosques.
"Where I live, there's nothing like this. I heard about it so I had to come," said Ahmad Shah, dressed in a traditional white shalwar kameez and waistcoat, who traveled from Kandahar, a southern city roiled by insurgent violence.
"I came to escape the cancer of the Taliban and this makes a refreshing change." Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Young Afghans lunged toward the stage, jumping and thrusting their arms into the air to the sound of local band White Page, and the handful of security guards were overwhelmed.
The crowd briefly parted when one man in jeans and a tight t-shirt took to the floor for an impromptu burst of back flips and break-dancing.
The festival was held under tight security in a corner of picturesque Babur Gardens, a normally tranquil park surrounding the centuries-old tomb of Babur, the first Mughal emperor.
The date and venue was kept a closely guarded secret until the last moment to ward off the chance of an insurgent attack.
Despite the secrecy, the concert attracted more than 450 paid-up revelers and scores more trickled in from street markets outside. A few elderly men with turbans and long beards appeared taken aback, but not entirely disapproving.
CHANGE THE WORLD
The crowd's enthusiasm persuaded even security staff and police to join in, nodding and moving their legs in time with the beat.
Loud cheers erupted when singer Sabrina Ablyaskina of Uzbek band Tears of the Sun jumped, gyrated and screamed into the microphone: "Kabul, my new friends -- let's rock!"
Tears of the Sun, now recording their sixth album, said they were surprised by the event's success.
"We didn't expect this crowd -- it's amazing, such energy," Ablyaskina told Reuters. "We love Kabul, more and more every day and we'll be coming back again, of course."
Guitarist Nikita Makapenko said: "Rock and roll will change the world, and we hope it will change Afghanistan too. This is historic, and it's just the beginning."
Sound Central was the brainchild of Travis Beard, an Australian photojournalist who joined a band when he moved to Kabul and was inspired by the talent and dedication of local musicians.
In the run-up to the festival, he held workshops to nurture the local talent showcased by Sound Central, and underground concerts to build the buzz and help bands rehearse.
The festival seemed to have served his goal of not just providing a day's entertainment, but kindling a love for modern music among young Afghans.
"We heard about the music festival from the radio, and when my friend asked whether we should go, I said 'Why not?'," said Lauria, a 19-year-old university student dressed in a bright headscarf, jeans and strappy sandals.
"This is great. I hope we can see more of it in Kabul," she said.