The Barzakh Festival will feature music from North and East Africa, traditional Korean music, and sounds from southern Italy next month. The festival, which will take place outdoors on February 3 and 4 at the East Plaza in front of the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre, will be back after a three-year absence due to the epidemic.
The event, which will be held under the art center’s seasonal theme of storytelling, will use music to emphasize the cultural customs of four different international acts. Lemma, a female collective whose music originates from Algeria’s southern regions, will perform on opening night, according to the National. Their songs frequently become hits on the international music scene because they contain references to spiritual and native poetry. They performed at the 2019 Womex festival in Finland after touring Europe.
With performances by the Somaliland-based Sahra Halgan and the Korean trio Ak Dan Gwang Chil, the festival’s closing night will showcase its diversity. Fans will now have the chance to experience the real thing as the group performs their sacred, shamanic, and secular traditional Korean folk music connected to the Hwanghae-do region, which is now a part of North Korea. Their online concerts for the Arts Centre in 2020 received positive feedback, and now they will get the chance to experience the real thing.
According to Bill Bragin, executive artistic director of NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre, “Barzakh Festival is really the annual highlight of the art center’s season and it really captures our purpose of bringing different audiences and art forms together.”
The artists chosen each year represent those who combine traditional and modern methods of creating art or who operate across cultural boundaries. They effectively convey the character of life in the UAE. On February 3 and 4, the Barzakh Festival will take place at the East Plaza in front of the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre.