Our Founding Festival
The Sandblast Festival was the spark that lead to the long and still-burning flame of Sandblast Arts.
Our founder, Danielle Smith, spearheaded this event’s organization and success in November of 2007. Her dedication, hard work, and the support of her network of peers culminated in a three day celebration of Art and Resistance at the Rich Mix Cultural Center in London.
The festival was studded with trailblazers and international artists, and boasted an audience of 2,500 spectators- all coming together to stand in solidarity and celebration with Saharawis.
Opening Night
The Sandblast Festival launched at Rich Mix on November 4th, 2007 and lasted over three full days. The opening night was compered by Henry Bonsu from Colorful Radio and attended by special guests from the UK such as iconic filmmaker Ken Loach and international guest such as the Algerian Olympic gold medalist Hassiba Boulmerka.
The opening night also featured the fabulous voices of Somalian singer Maryam Mursal, herself a political refugee and Pedro Lima and Teresa Pineschi from Brazil.
Saharawi group, Tiris, with the crowd on opening night
“I felt my eyes were opened not only to a great injustice, but also to the art and culture of a people who have been sidelined for far too long."
– Henry Bonsu, Director of Colourful Radio
Eighteen Saharawi artists from the refugee camps participated in the three-day festival. The multi-media event included Saharawi poets, painters, photographers, puppeteers, interacting with audiences and collaborating creatively with participating London-based and international artists. Tiris, the sensational seven-member music and dance band, was a headlining artist and brought the house down. The festival represented only one leg of their six-city tour in the UK, also organized by Sandblast founder, Danielle Smith.
Over the weekend, the music continued with Yazid Fentazi on oud, Luzmira Zerpa on vocals and cuatro, Liz Ogle on violin, and Sona Jobarteh on kora, and others. Alongside these intimate performances, there was pulsating dance madness between amateurs and professionals of diverse traditions.
Feature films, shorts, and works in progress offered multiple insights into the Saharawi situation as did talks on human rights, landmines, and women’s rights, including a special event with Saharawi human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Aminatou Haidar, who spoke about the systematic abuses of Saharawis living under the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara.
Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian Olympic medalist
Aminatou Haidar at opening night with Malainin Lekhal and at the Parliament in a human rights session
There were also creative workshops for adults and kids. Debut performances of The Wall, a British-Saharawi theatre collaboration, were also among the highlights. Through the story of the remarkable life of El-Keihal, a Saharawi poet, The Wall tells the story of a divided and displaced nation in struggle.
The three-day festival attracted over 2,500 people. Through related events in London and the UK Tiris tour, we reached an additional 4,000 people.
The 2007 Festival unequivocally affirmed the power of the arts to engage audiences widely and to open hearts and minds across the board to build bridges and new friendships. Hundreds of people learnt of the Saharawis for the first time and many considered the Sandblast festival the best awareness-raising party they had ever attended.
Scene from The Wall
Toy making workshop
Tiris, moments before performing
Tiris during the performance of The Wall
Momo Hafsi & Telo Morgado with Tiris tidinit player Moahemd Salek
"I'm sure the Sandblast Festival will have given many people an appetite for the Western Sahara."
– Toby Shelley, FT journalist and author of "Endgame in Western Sahara: Africa’s last colony."
Tiris UK Tour
About Tiris and Sandtracks:
Back in 2007, the camp-based Tiris band featured two lead singers Mufeed and Shueta (known locally as the Aretha Franklin of the Sahara). They were accompanied by Mohamed Zein on electric guitar, Bepa on keyboard and Mohamed Salek on the traditional four-stringed tidinit and the singer dancers Boba, Embarca and Swelma. Their debut album, "Sandtracks "was selected "Top of the World" Album in 2007 and received a 5-star review in Songlines.
The success of the festival was with great thanks to the energy and showstopping performances of Tiris.
With the added reach of Tiris’s extended tour, the efforts of Sandblast helped the Saharawi story reach over 4,000 people.
The festival was the starting point for their tour, and the official release of their studio album. Having Tiris perform as headliners for the festival was a beautiful celebration of their visibility and success as Saharawi artists on an international stage.
Sandblast was a driving force in the organization of Tiris’s tour and the recording of their debut album. Of course, these achievements were made possible through the network and callaboration of Sandblast’s supporters and their contributions.
“Tiris has it all: clear soulful vocals, understated but perfectly placed piano parts, rasping stringed instruments and those throaty guitar lines which warble and speak, summing up the sound of the desert.”
“If they weren’t stranded in the refugee camps in SW Algeria, Tiris would surely be one of the success stories of North Africa”
Want to discover more Saharawi music and artists?
Visit our Saharawi Music Archive! Curated by the Saharawi DJ Bedouin as a library of the genre-defying sounds of Saharawi creators.
