Life
September 22, 2005
International drums festival opens in Sri Lanka
Nearly 100 of the world's most talented master drummers gathered in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Wednesday to kick off the first-ever WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Sri Lanka Festival of Drums.
The festival, which is scheduled to last five days until Sept. 25, will showcase 16 performance groups from 11 countries, an official from the Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) said.
The SLTB-sponsored festival is the first WOMAD festival entirely devoted to the celebration of drums, rhythms and percussions.
Celebrating the island's association with drums, going back over 2,500 years, the festival consists of indoor and outdoor concerts and workshops in Colombo and other major Sri Lankan cities.
The WOMAD was created in 1981 by a group of individuals including the English singer and artist Peter Gabriel and Thomas Brooman, Artistic Director of WOMAD.
Since 1981, WOMAD has produced over 145 music events in 23 countries always aiming to offer audiences an insight into cultures other than their own through the enjoyment of music.
The Sri Lankan government hopes the festival will help the country's tourism sector recover from last year's tsunami that devastated two-thirds of its coastal line.
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka for the first eight months increased by 11.7 percent over the same period last year.
A total of 51,216 tourists arrived in August, showing an increase of 5.2 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2004.
Source: Xinhua
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