Womad: Saturday - Sufi Night

After a hot, hot day in the sunshine the late night focus for me became the cool, mesmerizing experience of the Sufi night, beginning with Egyptian Sheikh Taha

Here's a Youtube clip of his performance from another event....

The second series of Sufi devotions came from Uzbekistan singer Munadjat Yulchieva apparently a former opera soprano
Here she is, from a DailyMotion posting, singing in 2005.....

Monajat Yulchieva
Uploaded by ZamanArts

And thirdly, replacing a Pakistani singer (Asif Ali Khan) who couldn't get a visa to travel to the UK came the group "Sufi Women of the Islands"....although it wasn't clear quite which Islands these were (which would have been good to know)! I was intrigued to notice red spots decorating the palms of their hands........must be symbolic, I guess.

It was a fascinating evening's programme, finishing well past midnight but worth staying up for.....and I enjoyed some friendly chats with neighbours in the crowd between the acts. it was unfortunate though that their was quite alot of "noise pollution" from other events happening nearby, and people chattering through some of the songs was rather rude, I felt...

With the performances over I returned to find my tent, and attempt some sleep. The hot day, however, lead into a chilly night (well...dawn especially) and I got up at an unearthly hour to see if I could warm up with a walk...or a cuppa from some late night stall. Hence the following early morning images.....

And with some hope of temperatures rising again, with the rising sun, I went back to sleep a little more!!