New Campus Tunes in to the Cairo Jazz Festival for the First Time
Music blared from the New Cairo campus as it hosted the 10th edition of the Cairo Jazz Festival last week.
Covering a wide range of jazz styles from classical to contemporary and avant-garde, this is the first time the Festival moves from its traditional Tahrir campus venue to New Cairo.
Founded by pianist, composer and producer Amro Salah in 2009, the festival promotes and supports jazz music in Egypt and promote local Jazz artists.
Alum Hisham Kharma, known for his albums First Voyage and Sunset on the Nile, wowed the largest audience of the festival when he brought his electronic dance music to life at the rugby court on campus on October 11.
This was Kharma’s first time performing at the Cairo Jazz Festival, but still remembers attending four years ago.
It was around this time when he first began his live performances.
But he never forgot the first article which was written about his music.
“It was in The Caravan … I think it was back in 1998, something like that,” laughed Kharma, a graduate of computer science and engineering.
Egyptian singer Noha Fekry, known for her hit Bab Ahlamak (Doorway to your Dreams) performed at Bassily Auditorium on October 12.
Fekry, a veteran of previous iterations of the Festival, kicked off her one-hour set by first introducing the audience to the history of jazz, saying it was a refuge for African-Americans from the suffering of slavery.
This was her first time performing at the New Cairo campus.
“Usually small venues are easier, because we’re very close to the audience, so we feed off each other’s energy. But big venues hold a bigger number of people, so if you can actually connect with all of these people, it’s just fantastic,” Fekry said of the move to the New Cairo campus.
Over the course of three days, musicians from 14 different countries, including Syria, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Japan, Luxembourg and Finland, participated in the festival.
“It’s a great way to get to know different cultures. Usually it’s a very positive experience. Music has that charm of actually bridging [gaps] and bringing people together,” said Fekry.
One of these international performers was Lynn Adib and her quartet, a Syrian vocalist performing in Egypt for the first time.
“I’m so glad to be performing in Egypt, this country is like the highlight of the Arab world,” said Adib, who studies and performs in Paris, France.
The Festival has traditionally ben held at the Tahrir Greek Campus but this year made the move to New Cairo thanks to the efforts of AUC’s Special Advisor for Arts and Community Engagement Haynes Mahoney.
“Choosing this venue wasn’t the first plan we set, to be honest. However, Mr. Mahoney, wanted to add more events in the new campus, to make it more lively and to build an artistic and cultural center in New Cairo,” Neveen Kenawy, the festival’s general coordinator, told The Caravan.
But changing venues posed a few problems, especially with transportation. A lot of people complained because the venue is too far and they wanted the festival to be held in the downtown area, Kenawy said..
“We dealt with this issue by cooperating with the university, as we managed to have buses to transport the audience with cheaper prices,” said Kenawy.
AUC provided 12 bus lines with different locations and stops.
Tickets were sold for EGP 200 for the whole day. The Musicians’ CDs were also sold outside the performance halls.
According to the festival’s website, the festival was held under the auspices of Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Promotion Authority in cooperation with embassies of Austria, Netherlands, Czech, Poland, Portugal and Hungary as well as international cultural entities.
