Sounds of Music on Jerusalem’s Old City Streets

There seems to be a constant stream of festivals in Jerusalem, Israel,

 and this week is the annual music festival, Sounds of the Old City.

Nighttime music festivals are not the best ops for photos,

but some of these backdrops and stages are indeed spectacular.

Starting outside of Jaffa Gate,

image music, photo Old City music, picture music at night

the Na’am Ensemble was the opening act,

image girl singing, photo Jerusalem music, picture music

followed by a performance by Gole Anar.

Most of the names of the folk singers are not familiar to Anglo audiences.

music jerusalem image, photo music Old City

On the stage next to The Tower of David, the Alaev Family

photo girl singing, image music, picture family band

included family members dressed in colorful Bukharan clothing.

image music, photo band at night, picture Sounds of Old City

 There were over 11 mapped out performance locations,

the Dilijan Ensemble was #4 along the route.

A few locations were standouts,

image moat, photo photo during sounds of Old city festival

 like #3, down in the Tower of David moat!

image Tavrerna, photo Shimon Parnas

The show with the music of Taverna band, hosted by Shimon Parnas,

image moat, photo Sounds of Old City, Jerusalem music

was almost secondary to the site.

image moat, photo tower of David moat, picture Sounds of Old City music

Built for protection so many years ago, who could imagine this musical scene?

image Ketem Paz, photo Ketem Paz, music in Cardo picture

Ketem Paz, a group of religious and secular artists,

who sing Yemenite melodies from traditional texts,

image Cardo at night, photo Jerusalem music, picture interesting stage for music

performed in the Open Cardo as the opening act.

  What a stage!

image musicians, photo Old City night, picture violin

Also, students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance

were playing along the route.

image Arab market, photo Musiim Jerusalem

Signs showed the way through the Muslim Quarter

image Muslim Quarter, photo music Jerusalem, picture music festival

and the shuk, market,

but as usual I got lost.

They need more and better signs.

image Arab musicians

By a photo in the free information booklet (available in English, Hebrew and Arabic)

it seems that I saw Lelot HaMizrach and not the Sahara trio.

Finally, I ended up in Muristan Square where

image Hebrews of Dimona, photo music festival. picture music Old City

the Hebrews of Dimona were belting out

image Hebrews of Dimona, photo children watching musics, Palestinian children in Jerusalemn

 some old US favorites from the Four Seasons that even got the attention of even the very young.

image cute child, picture night at Mamilla Mall

Not everyone out at night was interested in live music,

image Palestinian woman, photo Arab girl, picture Arab girl

and some were shopping in Mamilla Mall.

Thousands and thousands of people,

from around the world were on the Jerusalem, Israel streets.

But if there is no violence, just sounds of music, then it is not news.

Be warned though, that not only is the Old City closed to vehicles,

but some streets in Old City were even blocked for pedestrians,

image Waldorf Jerusalem, photo WAldorf not open, picture Waldorf at night

like the street by the new still not quite open Waldorf-Astoria.

 Sounds of the Old City runs from March 31 – April 3, 7-11:00 pm.

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