Artbeat Festival 2010
Arts, Crafts and Music are three aspects of life that fit together perfectly, so it was no wonder that when the musical minds from the Cairo Jazz Club Agency united with the creative minds from Darb 17 18 Egyptian Contemporary Art and Culture Center that the concept of ARTBEAT came into motion!
Artbeat was a simple idea of harmoniously combining arts and crafts with local and international music into a festival to be enjoyed and appreciated by people from all walks of nationalities, ages and classes. But the simple idea didn’t stop in only Cairo; Interest from the Cultural Institutes Goethe and Robert Bosch Stiftung in El Minia prompted an expansion and aim to directly affect and entertain a wider audience in the city of El Minia (Upper Egypt). Artbeat’s excellent cultural diversity and exchange was promoted by the added support received from the embassies of Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
Prior to the Festival, Artbeat gained a lot of media support and coverage from major mediums/ companies in Egypt. Artbeat ran a huge marketing campaign throughout Cairo and El Minia; Outdoor billboards were located in key locations across Cairo. Advertisements and PR’s ran in Cairo’s most circulated newspaper Al Masry Al Youm and magazines directed at diverse audiences. Artbeat’s online presence was vast; advertisements, PR’s and articles post and prior to the event was up on all the vital website in Egypt from Yallabina, MSN Arabia to Cairo 360, Daily News and Al Masry Al Youm online. Cairo’s leading radio station Nile FM also took part in promoting the festival by actively mentioning the festival and line up through the air jockeys. The German visiting artists went live on air at Nile FM for an interview with a top air jockey to promote the festival and their music. Influential Television networks OTV and On TV took part in covering the festivals, interviewing the local and international artists and aired the footage prior to the successful event. Artbeat branding was also held in Cairo’s entertainment platform Virgin Megastore.
Artbeat ran over four glorious days across four different venues in Cairo and El Minia; Darb 17 18, Cairo Jazz Club, El Genaina Theatre (Al Azhar Park) and the Roman Theatre on the Corniche in El Minia from 10th – 13th June. Around 6,000 people attended the Artbeat Festival over the four days.
Darb 17 18 showcased ‘Uncovered’, a contemporary art exhibition featuring Spanish and Egyptian artists alongside open craft workshops for kids and adults. El Minian artist Hassan Shark exhibited his paintings next to contemporary artists from Cairo in the Cultural Palace in El Minia.
Egypt’s home grown bands El Dor El Awwal and Massar Egbari performed throughout the festival as well as International bands La Banda Del Pepo (Spain), i.trio (Switzerland), A Fula’s Call (Netherlands) and Zaebo & Robert Fischer (Germany). All the artists performed at the different venues. German electronic musicians Zaebo and Robert Fischer arrived to Cairo early to hold a workshop with Egyptian band Puzzle, the outcome of this workshop was performed during Artbeat. Adding tradition flavor to the festival, local folkloric bands and the Mallawi Stick dancing group from El Minia will also platform their talents in both cities.
The Artbeat team’s philosophy was to provide people the chance to enjoy art and music from all over the world. The success of Artbeat 2010 has cemented an annual festival every year. The aim is to bring more international artists and musicians to perform alongside Egypt’s local talents infusing cultures and sounds.
For more information log onto www.artbeatfestival.com
