The Sandblast Festival launched at Rich Mix on November 4th, 2007.

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.

Opening Night: Henry Bonsu with Sandblast founder

Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian Olympic medalist

Danielle Smith with filmmaker Ken Loach

Eighteen Saharawi artists from the refugee camps participated in the three-day festival. Tiris, the sensational seven-member music and dance band, brought the house down. The festival represented only one leg of their six-city tour in the UK. The multi-media event included Saharawi poets, painters, photographers, puppeteers, interacting with audiences and collaborating creatively with participating London-based and international artists.

Over the weekend, intimate jams took place with Yazid Fentazi (oud), Luzmira Zerpa (singer and cuatro player), Liz Ogle (violinist) and Sona Jobarteh (kora) and others. Alongside that, there was pulsating dance madness between amateurs and professionals of diverse traditions.

Feature films, shorts, works in progress offered multiple insights into the Saharawi situation as did talks on human rights, landmines and women, 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.

Tiris: traditional dance on tubuul (kettle drums) and tidinit

Momo Hafsi & Telo Morgado withTiris tidinit player Moahemd Salek

Toy Making Workshop

Tiris band members with British actors in The Wall

Scene from The Wall

Scene of Tiris in The Wall

The release of Tiris' debut album Sandtracks was met with a rave five-star review in leading world music magazine Songlines. During their month long UK visit, Tiris performed at Southbank Centre in London, Brighton Dome, Musicport Festival in Whitby, Salisbury Cultural Centre and Leeds Music Hall and in Wales in addition of headlining the Sandblast festival at Rich Mix.

Sandblast director Danielle and female members of Tiris (Embarca, Boba, Swelma and Shueta) with BBC Four music radio presenter at the Musicport festival.

Shueta singing at Musicport

Swelma on Tabl and Shueta singing at Salisbury Cultural center

Mufeed singing at Southbank

– Rose Skelton, Songlines

– Robin Denselow, a renowned war correspondent and world music critic, who gave Sandtracks a 4-star review in The Guardian.

You can listen to "Sandtracks" on Spotify