Festival in the Desert

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The Festival in the Desert (Festival au Désert) is an annual concert in Essakane, Mali, showcasing traditional Tuareg music as well as music from around the world. The Tuareg band Tinariwen first garnered international attention with their performance at the 2001 Festival.

A French language documentary entitled Le Festival au Désert was filmed at the 2003 festival. Performers include Tartit, Oumou Sangare, Lo'Jo, Tinariwen, Robert Plant with Justin Adams, Blackfire, Django, and Ali Farka Touré. The DVD contains English subtitles, and an audio CD of the concert, Festival in the Desert, was also released.

The celebration manifests what was envisioned in the 1996 "Flame of Peace," in which 3000 guns were publicly burned to signify the beginning of the reconciliation between the nomadic and sedentary communities of the southern Sahara. EFES, a Tamashek association whose aim is to develop the region, hit on the idea of grafting the Festival onto the great traditional gatherings of the Tamashek people on a grand scale. For centuries these gatherings have provided an invaluable opportunity for the nomadic Tamasheks to meet and celebrate with various forms of Tamashek song, dance, poetry, ritual sword fighting, games, and other ancient cultural traditions. EFES opened the event to the entire desert region, to the whole of Mali, and eventually to the world.