Iranian folk music festival back on track after COVID pause

Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran

Iran is a land of ethnic diversity, and that is reflected in different languages, cultures, and music. After over a one-year hiatus due to the coronavirus, the Iranian Folk Music Festival has once again hosted musicians from across Iran, each playing their local tunes using their indigenous instruments.

Every night during the three-day festival, different local ensembles took to the stage to perform.

So the audience could listen to Kurdish, Baluchi, Azeri and Arabic tunes in a matter of a few hours.

And this is my favorite part. On the sidelines of the festival, bands from different ethnicities get together and improvise.

This is where music transcends languages and interconnects various cultures.

And organizers say that's the main purpose of holding such an event: to unite different ethnicities through the language of music.

Organizers also hope that the festival would help revive Iran's folk music, which has long been overshadowed by some of the heavily invested genres like pop.

Through music, it's easier to grasp the cultural diversity in Iran. Because the music itself is a language. A universal language, that glorifies the beauty of the coexistence of cultures in one nation.

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