Sufi Festival

The festival brings together prominent representatives of various Sufi orders, who make up a transboundary cross-section, both stylistically and politically, of the Muslim world, from Pakistan and Turkey to Morocco.

Here in western Europe, the most familiar of these are probably the »whirling dervishes« who dance themselves into a trance in »sema« rituals. Before that, the ANIM Ensemble (Safar Ensemble) performs classical music from Afghanistan. On the second day, the Naghma-E-Israfil Ensemble demonstrates that women also have an important part to play in Sufism. In the evening, Mehdi Qamoum performs a »lila« ritual lasting several hours, with captivating music and tea breaks – this is how the Gnawa minority ethnic group in the Maghreb remembers its cultural roots.

The festival’s closing concert opens with Persian love songs penned by the great Sufi poets Rumi and Hafez. The sons of the grand master Ustad Saami then bring their father’s ecstatic Qawwali singing style into the present with power and precision.