Gulf | Bahrain
Spring of Culture festival to be more than just a festival, culture minister pledges
The festival will feature concerts, lectures, workshops, plays and exhibitions in Manama and Muharraq
- By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 17:13 February 15, 2010
- Image Credit: Gulf News
Manama: The Spring of Culture Festival, the largest cultural event in the Gulf, promises to be more than just a festival, its patron, the culture and information minister, has said.
"This festival presents Bahrain's interest in cultural development, but also has an education, a family, a talent and a community agenda," Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammad Al Khalifa said. "It also brings to light Bahrain' most talented youngsters and introduces them to the most renowned performers of the festival who share the common vision of promoting cultural understanding to every world citizen," she said at the announcement of the festival programme on Monday.
The festival will run from March 1 to March 31 and will feature concerts, lectures, workshops, plays and exhibitions to be held in several cultural locations in Manama, the capital, and Muharraq, Bahrain's largest city.
"The Spring of Culture returns in its fifth edition to assure Bahrain's presence on the global map of arts and culture," Shaikh Mohammed Bin Eisa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive of the Economic Development Board, organisers of the event, said. "This time, it is approaching the untapped young Bahraini talent that is considered to be one of our most valuable resources towards the development of the nation in the fields of cultural representation and economic friendliness on the global arena."
The 700,000 Bahraini dinar ($1,865,000) festival will feature Diana Krall, the Grammy Award -winning Canadian jazz pianist and singer who will perform for the first time in the region.
According to the organisers, Brazilian beats and rhythms will come live through Bale de Rua telling the story of working class friends who paint the world anew in glorious Technicolor and with originally composed Afro-Brazilian music.
Europe will be represented among others by the Italian migrant's orchestra Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, Italy's most diverse Orchestra, composed of a Tunisian singer, a Cuban trumpeter, a Senegalese drummer and many others with fascinating talents and backgrounds. Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio will bring its instruments of popular music to present a multicultural and funky version of Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Gulf music glory
Mohammad Abdou is set to be the "Crème de la crème” in this years' festival with a performance that will certainly draw thousands of fans from Bahrain and other Gulf countries.
In keeping with the promise made last year to invest in local talent, this year the festival will launch an initiative "The Spring of Culture Talent Programme” to motivate youngsters to unleash their hidden talents in the fields of visual arts, music, song and theatre.
The Talent Programme participants will be supported by a group of well known artists in Bahrain and will take part in "intensive mind-challenging" workshops by artists like Peter Wiegold, a renowned music composer and conductor from the United Kingdom, artist Mohammed Omar Khalil from Sudan who lives and teaches art in New York, curator Lance Fung from San Francisco, and conductor and musician Vladimir Ivanoff from Germany.
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