Top The Desert Festival with sand dunes like snow drifts, and two of the many Tuaregs whose festival this is, though sadly cancelled at the moment (2013-4) due to the insurrection in northern Mali.
if ever a festival was ‘far out’, this is it, both musically and geographically. It started with a revival of the traditional gathering or takoubelt of nomadic Tuareg families who, after the end of the Tuareg rebellion in 1996, were able to meet annually at the oasis of Essakane, sixty kilometres out in the desert from Timbuktu – itself two hundred kilometres from the nearest road. It became “the Woodstock of the Sahara” thanks to the efforts of one Tuareg of whom Habib Koite said “I was thrilled that it was my friend Manny Ansar (photo, bottom right) who had the power and the vision to make this happen”.
Next row L to R Tuareg on stage. And Di Taylor with Habib Koite, Festival Ambassador and a top Mali musician.
Next row L to R Hombori mountains - a view from Hombori village, and The Hand of Fatima.
Next row L to R Abdina Lougue, our Dogon Guide, who was first class. See 'contacts' on the Mali page. Masked Dogon dancers.
Below Masked Dogon dancer at a village festival. And Manny Ansar, the Desert Festival Founder and organiser.
