The Jerash Festival for Culture and Art 2001 will open July 25, with a special Arab and Palestinian theme to acknowledge the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the Jordan Times.
The South Theatre will host the opening ceremony, which will feature Jordanian singer Omar Abdullat and Syrian musician Bashar Zarqan, who sing patriotic songs inspired by Mahmoud Darwish’s poem Jedaryia.
The voices of Emirati singer Ahlam, Iraqi singer Kathem Al Saher, Egyptian Ehab Tawfiq and Lebanese George Wassouf and Assi Hellani will also echo through the Southern Theatre of the ancient Garasa.
“This year’s festival will focus on national Arab and local activity and will feature a large number of local and Arab performers and artists, participating in more than 24 different activities in the ancient city's theatres and venues over the 18-day festival,” said the festival’s new general director, Jeryes Samawi.
“Unlike previous years, the main events of the festival will take place only at Jerash’s southern and northern amphitheaters,” he added.
“This year, artistic performances are scheduled for weekends only, while the rest of the week is dedicated to poetry recitations and an Arab film festival,” Samawi said.
There are also theatrical and musical performances on the agenda, including Palestinian and Arab troupes that have a patriotic repertoire - like the Palestinian folklore group Sabrin and the Syrian dancing group Enana, in addition to the Jordanian play Of Soil and Purple directed by Sawsan Darwazeh.
Only one non-Arab troupe will perform at this year’s festival - the Turkish group TUTAV, “because the festival cannot afford to pay for famous artistic groups,” the director general explained. “Therefore, the activities will be dominated by a majority of Arab and local groups,” he added, citing low admission fees for local acts.
“We have found that the Jerash Festival is suffering from some financial problems, thus we cannot afford to spend as we used to in past years,” Samawi told reporters – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
