Sufi musicians and chanters from all over the world will gather at Bir Youssef (Joseph's Well) on Saturday night to celebrate the opening of the seventh annual International Samaa Festival for Spiritual Music and Chanting (ISFSMC). Bir Youssef is located at the southern end of Al-Nasir Mohamed Ibn Qalawoun Mosque, near the Salaheddin Citadel in Cairo. Egyptian performers will join with artists from countries all over the work, including Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Cameroon, Zambia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bosnia, Greece, the United States, India and China. The Syrian chanter Mohamed Abu Shaar, from the group Abu Shaar Brothers, is participating for the first time, and will be singing with an Egyptian group of Samaa. A children's Sufi chanting group will also make its debut, showcasing child chanters from the Dome Creativity Centre. “This is a great musical event that is sending a message to the whole world that we're extending our hands, celebrating our culture and welcoming other cultures to celebrate with us,” says Mohamed Abu-Seada, head of the Cultural Development Fund (CDF), the Ministry of Culture department organising the festival. He said that the festival will bring together different religions through the vehicle of spiritual music and chanting. The festival will also include performances outside Cairo, notably in Damanhur. This year the CDF has brought together the Ministry of State for Antiquities, the foreign cultural relations sector and the Egyptian Tourism Authority to bolster the event as a major forum for the art of religious chanting. Entesar Abdel-Fattah is the head of the Ghouri Dome Creativity Centre and the founder of the Samaa group. He is excited about a new feature at this year's festival: a pageant made up of all the performers that will march through Al-Muizz Street and through the streets of Fatimid Cairo to announce the festival's opening. “It really is a rich musical meal, but very delicious,” said Nemat Tawfik, first undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Tourism. She describes the festival as a gala event that offers a range of cultures, rhythms and sounds, producing a unique expression of the love between nations. The main festival venues are Al-Hanager Theatre, on the Opera House grounds, and Al-Ghouri Dome in Al-Azhar. The closing event will take place on the Sound and Light stage overlooking the Giza Pyramids. At Bir Youssef, viewers can expect an experience out of The Thousand and One Nights — but with a modern twist, says Abdel-Fattah. Young women and men in traditional Mamluk garb will welcome visitors into a space that was a cultural forum during the Mameluk era, where artists and intellectuals gathered to show their work to passers-by. For the festival, a market will display and sell products made from copper, wood and clay by artisans connected to the traditional arts centre. Handicrafts from participant countries will be also be exhibited on the fringe of the festival. The festival will honour the late chanter Sayed Al-Nakshabandi, author Gamal Al-Ghitany, head of the Catholic Centre Father Botros Danial, Tunisian theatre artist Ezzeddin Madani, and the late advisor to the Imam of Al-Azhar, Mahmoud Azab.
