Festival to celebrate culture and customs of Southern Ethiopia

(01.12.2006)

The culture of the peoples of Southern Ethiopia will be celebrated in the Festival of a Thousand Stars from 16^th to 18^th December 2006, providing a unique and free opportunity to experience the customs of this rarely seen and breathtakingly beautiful part of the world.

With performers from the extraordinary desert, lakeside and mountain top landscapes, the festival will offer an equally stunning and varied soundscape with music celebrating the homeland, rituals, life and death; the true heartbeat of Southern Ethiopia. Performances will run daily, from 15.00 to 18.00, at the Arba Minch football pitch.

Last year over 500 performers brought their music and dance to a crowd of more than 15,000 spectators.  This year almost 1000 performers are expected to dance in traditional costumes and sing in celebration of their ancient customs.

More information about the 2006 festival and the highlights of the 2005 festival are available from www.1000starsfest.com, and a video enhanced CD is also available.

Notes

• The festival is sponsored by the Christensen Fund in association with Global Music Exchange, and seeks to create and raise awareness of the fascinating and rich cultural diversity of Southern Ethiopia. The event has grown each year since the first Christensen Fund sponsored Festival of Music and Dance took place in 2003.

• Arba Minch, which means “forty springs”, is named after the mineral water springs which flow from lush Neskar National Park below the town, in the heart of the Rift Valley. It is 500km south of Addis Ababa and a day’s journey on good roads from the capital. Ethiopian Airlines fly there four times a week. It is the main town en route to the Omo Valley, and is situated in the foothills of the Gamo Highlands, next to Lake Chamo and Abaya.