Strasbourg to host Mediterranean festival next October

The northeastern French city of Strasbourg will host the first festival of Mediterranean arts and culture next October 23-31.

The festival will feature song, dance, handicrafts, cuisine, painting and cinema from major Mediterranean cities, namely Alexandria, Fez, Algiers, Carthage, Barcelona, Athens, Gaza, Istanbul, Rome and Rabat. It also includes round tables on economic, political, historical and cultural problems in the Mediterranean.

One of the supervisors of the festival, Katia Schultz, told MAP's bureau in Paris that the Moroccan central city of Fez was chosen even if it is not bordering on the Mediterranean for its cultural contribution and influence over the whole Mediterranean basin.

The organizing association, "Mare Nostrum," said celebrating the Mediterranean is a way to express gratitude to our "mother," our sea, mare nostrum, that shaped our past and will shape our future, MAP reported.

The festival will help highlight our origins through our sea, the Mediterranean, the cradle of ancient civilizations, that largely contributed to the emergence of modern times, the organizers said, adding that Arab, Greek, Egyptian, Roman and Byzantine civilizations have fed Europe throughout the centuries.