CAIRO - Everyone was happy at this colour festival of every kind of art. ‘Al-Fann Midan' (Art is a Square) was the first-ever festival put on at the weekend by the Independent Artists Coalition, a company conceived and born during the revolution. It was held against the backdrop of the late King Farouq's palace in Abdeen, downtown Cairo, in a square that was once heavily controlled by Mubarak's regime. Since the Egyptian revolution, the street has been doing much to change things in this country. The festival was held on the same day in many cities nationwide, such as Alexandria, Ismailia, and Suez, funded entirely by modest donations and depending on volunteers. “We want to make post-revolutionary art and music available to ordinary people, to bring art ‘out into the streets',” said Rasha Abdel Monem, a playwright and one of the Coalition, which plans to hold festivals on the first Saturday of every month. Among the crowd were famous faces such as Grammy-award winner Fathy Salama, poet Amin Haddad, Mohamed Saleh of the Cairo Opera House, photographer Mohamed Fathy Radwan and many others. The revolution and the politics of art were the main topics last Saturday. Saleh pointed out that ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his regime would only allow public displays of the people's spirit at football matches. “Football isn't the only thing that Egyptians should be interested in… we must use the national love of football for other things too,” he said. Two stages were erected in the square and, in the vast free area in front of them, children and young people expressed their thoughts by drawing on the ground. A band played on one of the stages, while another group of artists performed sketches on the other. The audience could choose what to watch. Al-Warsha, a charitable organisation seeking to economically empower poor people by teaching them how to do crafts, set up a table alongside vendors selling tea, T-shirts and other souvenirs. A cacophony of clowns, mimes, puppeteers, street dancers and other entertainers roamed through the crowds. Mohamed Fawzi, a puppeteer and a member of the ‘Studio Mansour 95' troupe for puppets showed children how to make puppets and how to manipulate them. “We decided to hold this small workshop in order to create a relationship between children and puppets. We will come to each festival with something new, such as glove art and shadow puppet art,” he told The Egyptian Gazette. Many of the bands sounded jazzy and their music, combined with the heady enthusiasm of the revolution, made for an irresistible combination. Just after 5:15, Rami Issam took the stage and all eyes were turned on him. Issam's songs were born of the revolution and the young people loved them. His music was slow and rhythmic; he spoke more than sang over his melodies. Don't mistake slow for boring, his music grabbed the audience and they clung to every word he sang. Musically, Issam has broken away from the throngs of experimental jazz musicians to find his own sound, a compelling mixture of classic jazz, spoken word and a hint of rock and roll. With his back to Farouq's palace Issam embraced the crowd. The energy was electrifying as he led them from song to song. The Cairo Choir Project, a motley group made up of professional entertainers and others who simply love to sing, were next. Performing their own compositions, the choir's voices were infectiously joyous. The faces of the crowd relaxed into a pleasant happiness. The Choir Project focused on the themes and lyrics, as they sang songs that criticised the standard of living in Egypt. The three themes on Saturday were complaints, utopia and advertisements.The best thing last Saturday was ‘Abdo and Aziza', characters played by Mohamed Hashim and Doaa Ramadan, members of an independent troupe called Misr el-Qadeema (Old Cairo). Hashim and Ramadan performed comic dialogues that dwelt on Egyptians' problems through the lives of a man and his wife.
