One of the presentations of the Arab Festival will feature highlights of Beirut nightlife from the 1930s to 1970s. (Ahmed Makhlouf)

Montreal’s Arab festival will be virtual

Every year, Montreal hosts le Festival du Monde Arabe, which involves live performances, cultural discussions, and films. Because of the pandemic, this year’s activities will be entirely virtual and held between November 12 and 29, 2020. 

The festival aims to create a dialogue between Arab and Western cultures. The live performances include dance, music, theatre, multidisciplinary arts, visual and media arts. It promises great variety which permits reflection and experimentation. Artists of all origins from the province of Quebec are invited to exchange with artists of other cultures and to explore new approaches. 

The first presentation will involve mystical Sufi performances.

Sufi mystics will present first show

he first presentation is Sufi Sphere, presented by the El Makhzen Cultural Association of Tunisia. The festival explains: “Sufi ritual consists of evoking the Divine through the rhythmic repetition of ‘His Name.’ This is a prayer of the heart with litanies that are sung by the members of the fellowship. The words and gestures are repeated jerkily to attain the spiritual emancipation of the soul and to reach divine unity.”

Golden age of Beirut nightlife featured

A show presented on November 19 features Bar Farouk and highlights the popular theatre and musical cabaret of Beirut from the 1930s to the 1970s. The festival explains: ‘it is a moment suspended in time in which, in the style of the Lumière brothers and the earliest days of cinema, photos come alive in the background and bring the Lebanese capital back to life.’ From the rococo to the hippie years, performers pay homage to musicians, composers, dancers and singers who illustrated life in Beirut before the civil war.

There are dozens more presentations described on the festival website.

(Festival du Monde Arabe de Montreal)

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