The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Since the last Colour
Festival in Cairo, attendees on Facebook have increased in number to over 16,000 users
anticipating this fun and colourful festival on September 10th.

This is the second Colour
Festival to take place at the Swiss Club in Cairo.  Holi is the name of the spring Hindu festival that
takes place on the streets of India and other countries with Hindu populations. The tradition of the Colour Festival as a fun and creative idea has spread all over the world and of course; fun-loving
Cairo has to have a taste of it.

While the original
Hindu festival springs from spiritual origins and beliefs, celebrating and
enjoying life are still at the heart of it. Next Saturday, the Colour Festival
will begin at 10AM and will continue for a whole eight hours, offering many
activities other than just splashing colours at each other.

‘The concept is to
enjoy the day, similar to what happens in India,’ says Mohamad Adel, head of
the Divas Team, the event’s organisers. Last year, the team participated in the
event and were inspired to help organise the 2011 festival.

‘We wanted to bring
our own point of view to this festival this time,’ he explains, ‘So that people
would not just splash colours, then get their pictures taken and leave.’

Along with
supervisor Peter Gamal, Adel and the rest of Divas Team have created a full program
for the Colour Festival on September 10th. Tickets are available for 50LE
and include entrance to the Swiss Club, colour packets for the splashing and a
foam bottle. Extra colour packets and foam bottles, along with snacks and meals
from the Swiss Club restaurant, will be available for sale once you get inside.

Music will be
playing all day with a mix of Indian, House, Techno and other music to add to
the festivity of the event. As it’s bound to be a long and exhausting day, the
Divas Team have arranged music tracks to elevate the mood and to slow the pace
down at the right time so that the guests have a chance to catch their breath.
Taxi Band will also be playing at around 2PM. Berwaz, the Street Studio Project, will take quality photos of the whole day, capturing group
portraits and other stills of the event.

In addition to all
that, the festival offers more than just four extra hours of ecstatic colour
splashing. There will an Indian snake show, Indian dancing, water fights, foam
fights and other creative activities.

There are also three competitions, the
first of which is for the most colourful guy or girl, so that people make
an effort to get all splashed with as many colours as they can. The second
competition is ‘Show Your Colours’’, which will choose the girl and guy of the
day that is covered entirely in one colour. The third competition is a
raffle for a brand-new Blackberry, to be drawn from the serial numbers of the sold
tickets; so hold onto your tickets when you pass the gates.

Unfortunately,
tickets for the September 10th event are now sold out, but the good news is that
Divas Team is already organizing another Colour Festival in October. The date has
not been announced yet but will be listed soon on their Facebook page with information
on where to buy the tickets.