Arts festival gets flavour of Egypt's 'Rebel' campaign

On Saturday 1 June, El-Fan Midan festival in Cairo's Abdeen Square was dedicated to explaining the vision behind the anti-Morsi 'Rebel' campaign

On Saturday, the regular public arts event ‘El-Fan Midan' (‘Art is a square') was held at Abdeen Square in Cairo, this time with a political flavour.
Abdeen Square on Saturday was filled with people walking, joking, eating, drinking and shopping. A large banner welcomed attendees with the words ‘free entrance'.
In addition to the usual arts programme, the festival in Cairo featured the ‘Rebel' campaign, an anti-Morsi initiative that aims to get 15 million signatures for its petition calling for early presidential elections.
At the entrance to the square on the left, a few metre-long banners displayed a list of reasons to sign the petition.
On the opposite side an artist displayed his work.
“This Saturday we chose to support the Rebel campaign and we invited the organisers to the square, so all the visitors can join and sign the petition,” comments Ayman Helmy, composer, producer and one of the event's organisers.
As per El-Fan Midan's tradition, along the square's sides, rows of tables were set up for arts and crafts activities. The square was also full of vendors selling popcorn, candyfloss, corn, and the Egyptian drink kharoub.
Throughout the day there were performances of plays, shows by circus acts, and musical numbers. There was also face painting, puppets and a small painting workshop for children.
“This is my first time to join this festival, but I really liked it. I decided to join because I wanted to bring the art to the people,” Alaa Nour, independent artist, told Ahram Online.
Later on, a representative of the Rebel campaign took the stage to introduce people to the campaign and encouraged them to sign the petition.
“I believe that El-Fan Midan is the true change. Sadly, it's the only clear change that has happened since the revolution,” said Helmy.
According to Helmy, the El-Fan Midan project used to receive a small amount of government funding in 2011 under former culture minister Emad Abu Ghazi, but with a change of minister, the amount decreased, until in 2012 the funding was stopped entirely.
Basma El-Husseiny, a founding member of the Independent Culture Coalition, said that under Abu Ghazi the figure provided per event was LE30,000. The following minister Abdel Hamid cut the budget to LE10,000, and in mid-2012, his successor Mohamed Saber Arab suspended the funds completely.
Helmy explained to Ahram Online that their expenses far surpass the amounts they used to receive, since they sometimes organise festivals in 13 different governorates. “Our main source of funding is contributions from people and organisations.”
“We face a lot of problems when it comes to money and spending. We try to work around it by asking for more donations. We try to ask the the ministry of culture to provide us with some funds, and other foreign organisations,” he added.
El-Fan Midan events have been held on the first Saturday of each month since April 2011, in Cairo and in other governorates.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/72961.aspx