Festival in the Desert

Imagine a musical celebration so remote it can only be reached by camelback or 4x4. Then add to that picture days filled with camel racing, impromptu jam sessions under traditional leather tents - and a modern stage full of electric guitars. You start to get a picture of what it must be like to attend the annual Festival in the Desert - a unique celebration of the music and culture of the Tuareg people (and one of the most remote music festivals on the globe). The Festival in the Desert also welcomes artists from other parts of Mali, Africa and the world. In January 2003, a diverse group of world-famous musicians (and adventurous music lovers) trekked to Essakane, Mali - deep in the Sahara - to perform and attend the third-annual Festival in the Desert. World Village's CD from this amazing event features tracks by Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangare, Lo'Jo, Tinariwen and Robert Plant. The Led Zeppelin singer performs "Win My Train Fare Home" with guitarist and World Village recording artist Justin Adams. The festival and its amazing music have already been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, Rolling Stone and in major US newspapers. The San Francisco Chronicle called the 2003 festival, "the only event on Earth where top-name Western musicians (like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin) perform on the same stage as nomadic groups with guitars, where Muslim government leaders and devout adherents of Islam sit in the same audience as jeans-wearing men with tattoos, and where camels and donkeys are as common a sight as people."