The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

It’s been a rough week in the capital, but nothing can hold down Cairo; the city that never sleeps! Here’s the best of the weekend’s events.

Thursdays always throw up some great live
music, and this week award-winning jazz musician Fathy Salama and his
crew Sharkiat will light up the Cairo Jazz Club stage tonight with a collection
of his greatest hits and newest tracks. Georges Kazazian will be at El Sawy Culturewheel
performing the White Lotus Project; is a special experimental set with the
backing of Swiss and Egyptian musicians.

Speaking of experimental music, Makan will host one of the most unique musical
performances Cairo has seen in a while. Dutch electronic group Waterproof
experiment with ‘water sounds’, and actually use water in their performances.
They will perform live to a backdrop of video footage of rural Fayoum. Over at Al
Azhar,  Alexandrian
folk singer Donia Masoud  will perform at
El Genaina Theatre, while Georgian pianist Elena Dzamashvili will perform at  Cairo Opera House.

If you’re looking for something a little
closer to home, Sahra are back at After Eight,  Darawish Abou El Gheit are at El Tanboura
Hall, and the National Arab Music Ensemble will perform at El
Gomhouria Theatre in Downtown Cairo.

We previewed the Contemprary Dance Night at
Rawabet Theater, and tonight will be the last chance you get to see this selection
of original performances. Heliopolis Library will be hosting a Rap & Comedy
night, which will feature rap segments and freestyles with comedy sketches.

Friday will see Georges Kazazian performing for
the second night in a row; this time at El Genaina Theatre, while superstar
Hamza Namira will perform in Al Azhar Park. Metal fans are in for a treat, as
El Sawy Culturewheel has brought together the bands Scarab, Perversion and
Bilocate for one huge night of moshing and headbanging, while Eftekasat will
also be performing at El Sawy Culturehweel

Fancy a drink and a dance? Check out Salalem
are at After Eight, DJ Feedo will be on the decks at Purple and DJ K-Z will be
spinning tunes at Cairo Jazz Club. If that wasn’t enough, ‘Alive’ is a huge
night of house music on the Temple Deck of the Nile Pharaoh Boat in Giza comes
courtesy of DJ Izzy, Soopar Lox and Greek superstar DJ Dpen.

Speaking of Salalem, the band will be part
of the UMF launch concert at Gezirah Youth Centre. ‘Nice to Rock You’
celebrates the launch of music website UMF and will also feature bands such as
Cairokee, Simplexity, and Egoz.

Friday will also mark the start of the
seventh annual Okaz Poetry Festival at El Sawy Culturewheel. The opening day
will feature a line-up of writers participating in a poetry recital, as well as
a seminar on the impact of poetry on European literature.

Theatrics this weekend come in the form of
the Cairo Opera Ballet Company’s ‘The Pyramids and the Revolution’ at Cairo Opera
House, and the Egyptian Modern Dance Company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s
Othello.

Wind the weekend down with a chilled
Saturday to the sounds of flamenco band Fuego at After Eight or Basheer at
Cairo Jazz Club. Alternatively, you can head to Cairo Opera House for a concert
by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.

If only retail therapy will do, then Garden
City’s Grand Nile Tower Hotel is where you need to be. Le Grand Bazaar will host local fashion, jewellery
and interior designers as they showcase their products, and you can enter one of
the competitions for a chance to walk away with great prizes.

Saturday will see the opening of ‘Pulse‘ at
the swanky Tache Gallery in Designopolis. The exhibition will showcase the
works of 47 young artists.  Also worth checking out is. ‘Silent Conversations’
at the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Centre. The exhibition features the sculpting,
photography and canvas art of four artists. Our reviewer found ‘Gamal Abd El Nasser
– The Dream’ interesting to say the least, and it’s worth a peek for its seven figure
pieces that are on sale.

There you go Cairo, have a great weekend; see you on the other side!