Zomer Van Antwerpen, Anvers

Created in January 2001, the Festival in the Desert was held every year in Essakane, near the city of Timbuktu in northern Mali. Before it was abruptly stopped by extremists, it had become one of the most celebrated events in Africa. The festival has its origins in the great annual traditional Tuareg celebrations that used to bring together the nomadic camps in the Timbuktu desert after the transhumance period. In addition to celebrations and games, it was an opportunity to make important decisions, to settle conflicts, to exchange information, and to forge alliances between the different nomadic tribes. With the festival, these ancient traditional gatherings opened up to the outside world in order to welcome artists from the rest of Mali and other continents. For three days, more than 30 artistic groups were invited from around the world to present their art to an audience of about 10,000 people in the heart of the Sahara.

With the politico-security crisis that Mali experienced in 2012 and in particular the ban on music in the north of the country, the Festival in the Desert became a "Festival in Exile", with its artists welcomed throughout the world in the form of Cultural Caravans for Peace to raise awareness within Mali and around the world on the challenges of the moment.

In this form, the Festival in the Desert and its partners express a non-violent but effective resistance to intolerance. The next "Festival in Exile Caravan" is planned for the summer/fall of 2023 with travel through Middle East, Europe and North America. This time it will feature the young and talented from the Sahelian and Sahara music scene: Kader Tarhanine.