On Saturday and Sunday, the French Institute in Cairo and Goethe Institute in Cairo joined forces for the second edition of "Grün Fête de la Musique" at Al Azhar Park. Various institutions cooperated in organizing the event like "Makan Aam," Orient productions, and Greenish, in addition to the Ministry of Environment.
Before Cairo's edition, a one-day fest was organized in Alexandria.
The idea of organizing a green edition of the iconic Music Day came to raise the awareness of the people towards the environmental issues, especially after the latest developments of climate change.
Originally, Music Day is a French celebration and organized annually since 1982, since that day more than 120 countries celebrated the Music Day. But this concept was developed to include Green tendencies in Egypt last year.
The French Ambassador to Cairo Eric Chevallier said that they are very happy to be part of this event and for their cooperation with his German counterpart. He explained that the Music Day in France means music everywhere and from everybody, that's why France was keen to promote this event globally.
Chevallier added that the German friends developed the concept of the music event to include sustainability, understanding of the current climate change, and awareness towards environmental protection. He highlighted that this edition came after the success of the last year's one, and it represents the cooperation and friendship between Germany, and France, as well as Egypt.
On his side, the German ambassador to Cairo Frank Hartmann thanked the audience, and highlighted that the issues of climate change, and sustainability are important, referring that now Cairo witnesses higher temperatures than the natural ones, adding that the increase could be by more than 8 degrees.
Hartman expressed that this joint initiative means to combine entertainment, joy, understanding, and connecting people to environmental issues which represents the original concept of the Music Day.
He asserted that they are happy that they are organizing this event for the second year with the French.
On the importance of the event, and the cooperation between France and Germany in Cairo Frederike Berje, the Head of Arts for the MENA region at the Goethe-Institut in Cairo, told SEE News that there is a wide cooperation between Germany and France. Both countries are among the key global powers, and neighbours. In addition, there is a joint fund between Germany and France. Both countries have the same target of raising the awareness towards the environmental issues and environment protection.
On adding the concept of environment to the Music Day, Berje highlighted that climate change is the question of every society. It is an intensifying issue, therefore, Germany and France combined forces with another partners in Egypt like the Ministry of Environment to teach people more about the challenges of climate change, in addition to engaging them in activities about recycling.
She added that the institute organized various programs for children and young adults about climate change, and green tendencies. Moreover, it established a program of organizing cultural activities for the cities outside Cairo to make people know more about climate issues.
The activities of the festival included various workshops and panel discussions about environmental and climate issues. Some of these workshops target engaging young people and children in interactive activities to educate and learn them more about climate change, its impacts, and how to set simple and effective individual solutions.
One of the most entertaining activities was Climate Fresk. The Climate Fresk is an international initiative taking the form of a card game. It was created and founded by Cédric Ringenbach in 2015.
The game simply took the form of a storytelling, a story to teach us what happened to our planet Earth and how the consequences can be horribly intensified through time.
During the workshop, various funny discussions were brought to the table like the impact of Green House Gases to the environment, the effect of increasing temperatures, and the relation between climate change impacts and armed conflicts, as well as the phenomena related to climate change like heatwaves, floods, droughts, and wildfires.
Furthermore, the participants discussed both major solutions that need the cooperation between community and government, and the simple individual actions that everyone can take.
Another exciting workshops was about how to recycle plastic bottles into new products as a part of teaching people how to make use of their waste, especially plastic.
"Garage Magazine" was among the unique parts of the event as the fifth issue of the magazine discussed environmental issues and climate crisis in form of graphic stories. This edition witnessed the involvement of German artists alongside the Egyptian ones, and was backed by the Goethe Institute in Cairo.
Regarding the second domain of the event which is music, the festival witnessed the participation of various fine projects from Egypt like Maryam Saleh, Aqsa El Wasat, and Electro Zebala whose concept is based on producing electronic sounds from the waste, and recycling waste to produce instruments.
Beside the music, workshops, and discussions, there were several exhibitors who display their Eco-friendly products.
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