Nevine El-Aref watches preparations for the 11th Cairo International Song Festival beginning this Sunday Starting last night, the Cairo Opera House grounds have been suddenly active. Not previously announced, large-scale rehearsals, overseen by choreographer Walid Auni, saw dancers in full costume, musicians, singers and blue-collar workers all busily practising and installing infrastructural components -- all, as it turns out, in preparation for the opening of the 11th Cairo International Song Festival (4-10 September). To be attended by culture and tourism ministers Farouk Hosni and Ahmed El-Maghrabi, respectively, the Sunday inaugural ceremony (8pm) is taking place this year at Cairo Opera House -- and not at the usual Cairo International Conference Centre venue -- to mark the Ministry of Culture's first ever participation in the festival. As well as the Opera House, festival events will also take place at the Manesterly Palace, on the Nile island of Rhoda, in the Gouna resort, north of Hurghada, at the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria and within the Chinese Garden in Madinet Nasr -- and the increase in number of venues is said to constitute an important development in itself. "The opening ceremony," Auni, its director, told Al-Ahram Weekly, "will be introducing a new tune this year," offering, among other things, a range of Egyptian sounds. Starting with a 15-minute tableau of modern dance by the Cairo Opera troupe, created to the sound of an especially composed musical piece, the ceremony will move onto the pirates' dance, extracted from the Sheherazade ballet, followed by the handing out of honourary awards to, among others, the name of the late vernacular poet Salah Jahin, composer Ammar El-Sherei, singer Samir El-Iskandarani and folklore singer Laila Nazmi, as well as Lebanese singer Nancy Agram and Syrian singer Nour Mehanna. Contributing as performers are Portuguese singer Katiya Guerrara and an Argentine tango troupe. But the highlight will likely be after the break when Egyptian singer Shaimaa Said, Mehana and Agram start performing against a movable backdrop showing extracts of their video clips. Agram, arguably the most popular, will take up the last episode, too, performing a brand new song, Law Sa'altak enta Masri (If I asked you, 'Are you Egyptian?') "Considering the efforts undertaken to prepare this festival," the first undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture Farouk Abdel-Salam told the Weekly, it can only end up being "a smashing success". This year the festival has a totally different look, he added, the logo featuring a Pharaonic harpist with two lotuses in the background having been replaced with one featuring the white silhouette of a singer against a black background. Yellow, green and black posters with small photos of every participant have been suspended on streets and inside cafés and cultural centres by way of promotion. For the second year in a row, Abdel-Salam added, competition is excluded from the programme; a new code of participation will block out inferior participants and draw in more Arab and international talent. Abdel-Salam stressed his appreciation of the efforts of both the Portuguese and Argentinean ambassadors in facilitating the work of the festival (the former paid 75 per cent of Guerrara's cost, while Argentina sent over the troupe in the framework of an Argentina-Egypt exchange). The event will benefit significantly from the participation of the ministry, too, which has extensive experience with comparable events like the Cairo International Film Festival. The Song Festival, Abdel-Salam clarified, has no commercial aim, its only objective being to promote tourism and provide Arab singing with a forum. The week-long event will provide music lovers with astounding variety: tango in Gouna, Guerrera at the Manesterly Palace and such Egyptian pop stars as Sherine and Mahmoud El-Esseli at the Chinese Garden. Both Guerrera and the tango troupe will perform on Wednesday night at the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria. More to the point, following a phone call with Agram, Salah Selim, the festival director, said the young star is extremely keen on participating and has described the honour she will receive as acknowledgment from "the Hollywood of the Middle East".
