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Kurdistan Region (Iraq) Hosts Music Festival 30.10.2006
By Benjamin Sand, Erbil |
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Erbil, Kurdistan
Region (Iraq), October 30, -- The semi-autonomous
Kurdistan region in (Northern Iraq) has largely
avoided the surging violence that has destabilized
so much of the country these days. In the Kurdish
capital, Erbil, a national music festival is
underway, celebrating the entire country's shared
musical history. The festival is a bittersweet
escape from Iraq's growing civil conflict.
The band is called Baghdad, but tonight they are
playing in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan region in
Northern Iraq.
Monday is the final night of the city's three-day
music festival. Like Baghdad, most of the groups
performing are playing traditional Iraqi music, some
of the songs more than 400 years old.
Organizers say the festival is, at least in part,
meant to remind Iraqis that they share a common
culture.
Fakhri Fathel lives in the Iraqi city of Mosul and
helped select many of the music groups. He says the
all groups from Mosul have a simple message for the
audience.
He says the musicians came here to prove that there
is only one Iraqi people. He says the message is
love and unity throughout Iraq. The bands perform
beneath hand painted banners extolling the virtues
of a unified Iraq.
One of the largest signs reads, "From the marshlands
in the south to the Kurdish mountains in the North
let us sing as one country".
The audience reflects Iraq's unique cultural and
political heritage. The crowd includes local Kurds
and Arab Iraqis. Members of the city's sizable
Christian community mix freely with Sunni and Shiite
Muslims.
For most of the people the festival is a welcome
distraction from the war in Iraq. Children dance up
and down the aisles as the musicians perform.
Forty-five-year-old Roopak Abdlkader says the music
reminds her of her childhood in Baghdad.
It is amazing, she says, that the musicians can
still create something so beautiful, despite the
challenges they face in Baghdad and Mosul. Really
she says, we should thank them, they are genuine
artists. But for many of the artists the festival is
bittersweet.
The annual celebration used to be held in Mosul,
where most of the music actually originated. But
organizers say the fighting there is just too
intense to risk public performances.
So, for most of musicians this is a rare opportunity
to play in front of an audience. Several of the
artists say it may be the last time they can perform
until this time next year.
These days in Iraq one says, even music can get you
killed.
voanews com
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