May 5 , 2015 Egypt beat the drums for peace with the third International Festival for Drums and Traditional Arts, which ended in Cairo on the 25th of April. The purpose of the event was to bring together performers from around the world under the slogan “Drums Dialogue for peace”.
A colourful opening ceremony for the week-long festival was held at the Salah al-Din Citadel with various traditional performers beating and striking various drums.
Artists from over 20 countries took part in this year’s festival including Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Mexico and Burundi were among the ten new countries that took taing part in the festival and Ethiopia was the guest of honor for this year.
The organiser and president of the festival, Intesar Abdel Fattah, said the festival shows how Egypt can promote cultural exchange.
“I believe that the value of this festival is that it reaffirms Egypt’s place within the international community, and for different countries, and Egypt’s individuality, and it also confirms Egypt’s keenness to embrace all the other cultures of the world, through bringing them all together in a humanitarian stand,”
The festival is organised by Egypt’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as the Youths Ministry and the State Information Service.