Le Festival au Desert

I’ve suddenly been touched with a burning ambition to travel to Mali and go to the Festival in the Desert. I’ve known about it for a couple of years now, ever since I first discovered Tinariwen but just recently the music of this African country has been eating it’s way into my soul and I keep coming across more great music from the region.

They say the music that became the blues came from this region of Africa (via the slave trade)and hence you could probably trace the roots of most of American and European popular music in the late 20th century back there. The nomadic Touareg peoples have a long tradition of gatherings where they met, exchanged ideas, raced camels and played music. The Festival au desert has risen from these traditional meetings.

The death of one of Mali’s finest musicians Ali Farka Toure the other day had me nosing around the internet and came across the website for the festival. After looking at it I suddenly realised that going wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility – even if it would be quite expensive. Unfortunately I’ve missed this year’s festival and wouldn’t be able to go next January because I’ll hopefully have just returned from Australia but that would give me to 2008 to save up!!!!

Just getting to the festival would be an adventure in itself. It’s held in a place called Essakane, which is a desert village 60 miles northwest of Tombouctou (Timbuktu). You would have to fly to the capital of Mali, Bamako and then travel to the festival site. Most packages head off to Timbuktu and depending upon your budget you could either fly or travel by road.

The road journey is by necessity in a 4x4 and takes two days, the first of which is on the national highway which is surfaced, the second day you turn off the main road and travel on a rough track built by the army. During the journey you cross the Niger by ferry. Once you reach Timbuktu though the road ends and the last part of the journey to the site is across the desert, which can take between 2 and 6 hours. Of course many of the locals travel to the site in a more traditional manner on camels and can spend several days trekking across the desert to reach the site.

The site is nestled among sand dunes and a tented village surrounds an open-air stage. The accommodation is in traditional tents and all food is provided in big communal restaurants. During the day there are Camel races, traditional music and dancing. There is a market place selling traditional crafts, fabric, clothes and jewellery as well as hawkers selling their wares. Touareg dress and camels are the order of the day but more western visitors are making the trek out to the festival.

At the night the site is transformed by the open fires provide light (and warmth in the cold desert night). The area in front of the stage fills up with between 2000 and 5000 people who gather to listen and groove to the great African sounds under the clear star filled sky. The music continues until the early hours of the morning.

I’ve got to go! So I had better start saving - unless there is some nice newspaper or magazine editor out there who would like to send me to next years festival in exchange for a story!!

Pictures by René Goiffon

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