Feature: Ramallah music festival stands for hope

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-21 21:59:08|Editor: huaxia
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RAMALLAH, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- In the breeze of the summer nights of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian singers have starred the annual music festival, with hundreds of audiences of all ages moved and finding hope in music.

Over the week-long music festival in its ninth edition, Ramallah residents celebrated for ten of their favorite artists who revive traditional music and present with talent alternative music at the same time.

While the annual festival aims at nurturing cultural activities that distinguished Ramallah historically, it has chose "hope" as the theme this year, to tell everyone that it is still there.

"The festival is organized by Ramallah Municipality and it is the city's annual festival that allows culture to all, because it is not limited to any group," said Maram Totah, the Municipality's information officer.

She said the theme "hope" is inspired by the First Intifada, or a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the performances are musical and artistic by local Palestinian artists.

The contemporary city, known as both a cultural hub and political center, is now hosting a continuation of the long tradition of artistic expression throughout its summer nights, in spite of the economic and political difficulties that have strangled its social and cultural life.

Amongst the audience sat Ghasoub Ghadban, a Palestinian expatriate and father of half Bulgarian twins. He said he flies to Palestine every summer with his children for them to learn Arabic language and indulge the culture from its sources.

"Our heritage has deep roots that reach as far as thousands of years back to the Canaanites, so, it is a beautiful thing, particularly after the systematic draining process that the occupation and all its helpers are doing to Palestinians, to see pride in attempts to revive the heritage and consolidate it," said Ghadban.

"Naturally, our participation today is not only for the sake of spiritual joy, but also in order to support such initiatives," he added.

The festival is dubbed "Wein ah Ramallah," a traditional Palestinian song which talks about returning to the city of Ramallah, represents an intertwined question and answer "Where to? To Ramallah," as if to state that the city has the answer, especially as it struggles to reclaim its known tradition and role as an open hub for joy and hope. Enditem

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