21 June 2006

BEIRUT: A celebration of live music, a diversity of sounds both professional and amateur, a slew of free concerts. These are the basic tenets of the global Fete de la Musique, which is taking over various venues throughout Beirut, starting this afternoon. For the sixth year, Beirut will participate in this celebration of live music of all genres, the 25th time the Fete de la Musique has gone down worldwide. In Amman, the offbeat cultural center Makan House, in collaboration with Jordanian capital's French Cultural Center, is staging a Fete de la Musique concert for a rowdy group of musicians at Al-Anda Gallery in Jabal Weibdeh. In Damascus, musicians took over a collection of historic sites and bath houses last week to stage their own version of the Fete de la Musique, replete with classical music, jazz and French funk.

Lebanon's culture minister, Tarek Mitri, launched Beirut's Fete de la Musique with a news conference at the Place de l'Etoile last week, where he expressed his unabashed enthusiasm for the event.

"La Fete de la Musique is the biggest gathering of the year. Nothing can compare to this atmosphere of collective enthusiasm which invades the streets, this public curiosity for different musical performances, which is possible to enjoy at the same time, on the same night," he said. "It is a voyage through the music of the world."

This is the silver anniversary of the festival, which has become a truly global event, celebrated in over 120 countries. Beirut's event this year promises to be bigger and better than ever. In 2005, there were around 40 different acts. This year there are 60 performances taking place in six different parts of the city.

Beirut-based Spanish artist Ana Corbero is taking things one step further by staging a raucous procession Wednesday afternoon, complete with ad hoc marching band, from her studio on Abdel-Wahab al-Inglizi Street in Achrafieh to Saifi Village with a set of her large-scale sculptures, which will be on public view all summer.

Toward evening, music will be heard from Hamra through Downtown and Gemmayzeh. Organizers have also allocated specific venues for specific musical genres. For example, the old domed movie theater on Martyrs Square, officially known as the City Center Building, has been dedicated to electronic music (including an appearance by the inter-nationally renowned Spanish DJ, DJ 2D2), while jazz is will be played at the Samir Kassir Garden. Martyrs Square it-self will be a venue for rock.

All this follows the objective of this year's Fete de la Musique: to offer the Lebanese public a musical program of genuine quality for those who want to stroll around to the sound of incredibly varied instruments and rhythms from Lebanon as well as from other parts of the world.

As Mitri, known for his appreciation of music in general, concluded at the news conference: "Music is a universal language. We invite you to sing in all the languages, to dance to all the rhythms, to express yourselves in the music."