Summer festivals, Part 1: Africa Fête
We’re beginning to get a lot of press releases concerning summer festivals. One we thought we’d highlight is the annual Africa Fête show in Marseilles on June 30. First, because we’ve always wanted to visit the town and secondly as the event is quite cool. Headliners include Kristo Numpuby, Ashes to Machines, Oumar Kouyaté and Fogny. Needless to say, there will be the usual extra-curricular goodies such as contemporary dance from Burkina Faso, associations promoting all things African and a truck built by artists from Liverpool, Prague and elsewhere on the theme of migration. All this for a ridiculous €5. Details on the Africa Fête site.

You’ll have to move fast on this one. Damon Alban of Blur has visited Mali on several occasions, and is determined to spread the good news about its music. He is hosting an exclusive event on December 13 in South London that will bring together Amadou and Mariam, Rachid Taha, K’naan, Souad Massi and Ba Cissoko along with 20 or so other like-minded English and American artists, a lot of whom will be your favourite acts (…….. it apparently includes some very big names indeed).
Prog rock never really goes away. On 1st December the European band Univers Zero will play at the “Alternativa Festival� in Prague. On 22 March 2007, they will appear at the “Baja Prog Festival� in Mexicali (Mexico).