Tunisia Africa News Agency
The Festival International De Dougga in Tunisia announced the organization of the 47th session of this international summer event, from July 27 to August 7, 2023.
During an official ceremony in the Tunisian city of Gammarth, the list of artists who will furnish this year’s session was revealed, as the organizers were keen to program performances of different musical styles such as familiar, rap, jazz, qnawa, the Tunisian stringed song, as well as the popular song.
The audience of the Festival International De Dougga will have a date this year with Tunisian artists Ziad Gharsa, Balti, Nidal Al-Yahyaoui, Mahdi Ayachi, Muhammad Ali Shabeel, the brothers Nour and Salim Arjoun, Nabiha Crawley, Dhafer Youssef, and rapper Karim Kazou.
As for the international names present in this session, they are the Algerian artist Souad Massi, the Syrian artist Faia Younan, the “Square” group from Jordan, as well as the Moroccan-French group “Bab Al Blues”.
Mukhtar Balatek, the course director, said that the festival authority has trained 15 young festival members, with the aim of building their capabilities in the areas of good preparation, planning, organization and search for financial resources for the festival.
He pointed out that the festival’s budget has grown from 150,000 Tunisian dinars in 2020 and 2021 to 400,000 Tunisian dinars during the past year (2022), to reach about 600,000 Tunisian dinars this year.
He stressed that the festival is keen to highlight the cultural and tourist heritage of the Tunisian city of Dougga and the northwestern regions in general, expecting an audience of 30,000 spectators, equivalent to 15 percent of them foreigners.
He pointed out that three travel agencies will provide air-conditioned buses to transport travelers from the capital and from the neighboring cities of the Tunisian city of Teboursouk, to the exact archaeological site where artistic performances are held.