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Submitted by admin on 27 July, 2010 - 12:21
Date: 
27 July, 2010

The 32nd Assilah Festival closed in Assilah, Morocco Monday with the Festival founder Mohammed Benaissa saying the event was a “100 per cent success.” Benaissa went on to praise the UAE – who was this year’s guest of honour at the festival.

Mohammed Mazrouei, Director General of ADACH said:

“This was an opportunity for the United Arab Emirates and the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH) to be the guest of honour for the 32nd year of the Assilah Festival. It was a privilege for ADACH to be able to showcase our extensive portfolio of work and engage with communities, artists and intellectuals from North Africa and Europe.”

Benaissa also said:

“The major highlight for me was the presence of the UAE as the Guest of Honour and ADACH. The contribution of the UAE with its exhibitions, musicals; the participation of the intelligentsia – we had more than 150 guests from the UAE – artists, diplomats, musicians, poets, academics; so that was a big highlight”.

The event which ran from July 10th to July 27th saw more than 200,000 visitors from around the world. The wide-ranging nature of the festival and its durability has seen it become one of the most important in North Africa. This year – under the theme “Renewable Energy – A Leap Towards Human Development” – the event saw a diverse selection of events, from panels on cultural diplomacy to Emirati film screenings and exhibitions on earthen architecture.

The festival highlighted the scope of the UAE and particularly ADACH’s achievements in a number of fields including culture and the arts, ethnomusicology, education, sustainability and architecture.

Dr. Sami el Masri, Deputy Director General of Culture & Heritage said:

“ADACH’s participation at the Assilah Festival is a demonstration of the broadness of scope of its cultural programmes and initiatives and the efforts it has made to fill in the gaps in the area of culture regionally. Not only is ADACH active in programming for culture, it is actively establishing cultural institutions that have a long and lasting impact on the development of society in the Middle East and North Africa.”

The presence of Emirati artists, writers and intellectuals and their participation at the Festival gave Assilah's multi-ethnic and cultural public a glimpse of the latest developments on the Emirati art scene.

Visitors were also able to witness first-hand the impact that ADACH has had in bolstering authentic Arabic music and sponsoring young talent. They have achieved this through the Beit Al Oud Al Arabi and the Al Ain Centre for Music in the World of Islam.

ADACH, along with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development and Masdar are representing UAE officially at the Assilah Festival as a guest of honour this year.