Afghanistan To Host First Music Festival in 20 Years - Sound Central
Monday, 03 October 2011
Written by Rob Knowles
The Spanish novelist Cervantes said that “he who sings scares away his woes”, and right now there are few countries with such woes as Afghanistan. A small yet significant light has appeared on the horizon for some however, as Afghanistan is set to host its first music festival in over 20 years.
The one-day “Stealth-Festival” titled Sound Central aims to draw crowds of up to 2,000 people and will feature bands from countries all over Central Asia including Iran, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The man behind Sound Central is Travis Beard, an Australian photographer who went to Afghanistan as a news photographer but joined a band after rediscovering his love of music. As he told REUTERS, for the last four years he has been planning and preparing this festival in order to encourage young Afghans to be “interested in modern music”.
Alongside this venture, Beard has also set up a week’s worth of workshops in order to help young musicians with everything from stage presence and composition to lighting and sound engineering.
Of course, in a country where music was banned for a long time under a strict Taliban regime, the festival does indeed need to be a little cautious against the possibility of a backlash from those who still have unfavourable views on music.
Nevertheless, it’s said that music can unite the people against all odds, so let’s hope in a decade U2 are playing in Basra whilst Afghanistan rockers Kabul Dreams are headlining a show at your local Academy.
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The one-day “Stealth-Festival” titled Sound Central aims to draw crowds of up to 2,000 people and will feature bands from countries all over Central Asia including Iran, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
