The Cultural Village Foundation – Katara recently launched the first show of its third Cultural Diversity Festival at the Katara Amphitheatre. The show kicked off with a spell-bounding performance by a group of local singers, singing known folklores of the country. The festival is scheduled to run till March 09.
The inaugural performance of the festival was attended and appreciated by people in large numbers. Tambourine, cymbals, drums, and perhaps an oud, rebaba (a stringed instrument) and flute, took over the centre stage as varying in rhythm, the group enthralled the audience with collective singing.
Different groups from 17 countries will be presenting their traditional and folk music including Qatar, India, Oman, Ghana, Macedonia, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic, Iran, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Bulgaria, Morocco, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Russia.
The second performance was presented by a team from Bobby Dance Academy Gujarat, India. Hoopla of colours, traditional music and makeovers.
Talking to Community, Saud Abdul Aziz al-Mal, organiser of the festival said, “The performers are coming from different countries. They will be presenting their folklore music and cultural dances. Each team will present three different aspects of their country in one performance. As usual, we opened the festival with the performances by a local Qatari group. The Indian group has presented different performances highlighting cultural diversity of their country.”
Saud added, “This year we will be having twelve community bands at the festival. These Qatar-based community bands will present their folklores in music and dance. Many Arab, Asian, and European communities in Qatar are also going to perform for the first time at the festival.”
“The groups from each country will perform for two days – every Thursday and Friday evenings. People will have a good opportunity on every weekend to enjoy open air performances from diverse cultures,” Saud said.
Regarding the popularity of the two earlier editions, he said, “We have come a long way. After having a great response from the first two events, this time we have decided to have it at the Amphitheatre. The number of people attending the festival is increasing.”
“This event is different from other shows in a way that we are featuring traditional music and dance. The performers also wear their traditional clothes and costumes. We do not present modern or popular music,” says Saud.
Speaking about the Qatari performers, he said, “The group that opened the festival is formed by Faisal al-Tamimi. Its name is Qatar Traditional Band. It is one of the best cultural groups in Qatar. They perform at most of the national events.”
He added, “The visiting performers have enjoyed the festival as they love performing in Qatar. Abdullah Ahmad al-Emadi, a member of the Qatari group, said, “We often sing and praise Allah, and feature old stories of Qatar and other Gulf countries.”
Ashish P Deliwala, Music Director of Bobby Academy, said, “We are 14 dancers performing here at the festival. We are very excited to perform here. Katara is a very nice place. I love Doha.”
He added, “Our performance was for about 45 minutes and we featured traditional dances and wardrobes. My dress weighs 12 kilogram. We performed different traditional dances of Gujarat including dhandiya, garba and agni bhavai. The agni bhavai is an interesting dance where tea is prepared on the head of the performer. We have visited Museum of Islamic Art and Souq Waqif. It is an amazing country.”
“I have been running the dance academy for the last 16 years in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Over 4, 000 students have completed different courses from my academy. I have already visited different countries to perform our traditional dances,” he said.
Raees Ahmed is from Mumbai and has been living in Qatar for 10 years. He said that he loved the performances from India and Qatar. He added that he love both countries and their cultures.
PERFORMANCE: Tambourine, cymbals, drums, oud, rebaba (a stringed instrument) and flute, took over the centre stage as varying in rhythm, the local group enthralled the audience with collective singing.
