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

It’s another busy weekend in Cairo: despite the curfew, the city is bursting with fun concerts, interesting exhibitions and festivals!

Start your Thursday off right with a bunch of concerts to
choose from: Beatles fans should head to the BCA in Mohandiseen for a Beatles
Tribute Night by Glass Onion, a Beatles Tribute band at 8PM. Tickets cost 40LE
for non-members and 20LE for members of BCA.

If you appreciate Egyptian folklore and
traditional songs, head to El Tanboura Hall for El Tanboura’s last concert till
mid-April; they’re heading to Abu Dhabi to participate in the WOMAD
international music festival. Show starts at 8:30PM. There’s also
Sahra Band at After Eight at 7PM, who will play their trademark fusion of Latin
jazz and African/oriental music.

Let your hair down and enjoy the possibly
insane band known as Crash Boom Bang, playing live at the Cairo Jazz Club at
6:30PM. Expect upbeat mash-ups of your favourite pop hits and infectious
stage energy. For a more subdued
concert, the Cairo Opera House features a concert by the FeMusa String Ensemble
from England, starting at 7PM.

Music Aside, AUC’s New Campus is holding the Cairo
Documentary Festival starting at 3PM until 10PM tonight. Tonight’s
documentaries focus on ‘cultural Industry in Sudan’ and include ‘Egypt Rising
1: Documentary Rising Sura’.

If you’re near Saad Zaghloul in El Sayeda Zeinab, check out
the EMSA Photography Club for its ‘Cairo From Above’ exhibition, the result of
a three-day workshop where photographers took photos of Cairo landscapes from
helicopters.

On Friday, start your day off with a lazy brunch at Tamarai,
which has just launched an open brunch menu for around 160LE per person, or if
you’re in 6th of October City, try the Terrace’s brunch in the outdoors for around 130LE per person. If you’re near Garden City, try the Kempinski’s new brunch menu, a fusion of Egyptian and Turkish cuisine for 195LE per person.

Project Yourself’s 12th Open Mic Night gets off
to an early start at 5:30PM at Darb 17 18 and continues till curfew. The event
promises raw talent and promising sets of stand-up comedy, spoken word, live
music and much more.Also at Darb 17 18, check out the ‘Biennale of Bamako 2009’, an exhibition in collaboration with Institut Francais D’Egypte that features photographs by forty artists on the theme of borders.

If you’re in the Fifth Settlement area, you could check out
the AUC’s annual PVA Faculty exhibition at the New Campus’ Sharjah Art Gallery,
which closes at 7PM. You could also head Downtown to Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art
for the very interesting ‘Propaganda by Monuments’ exhibition, a
collaboration with CIC that includes artwork that ‘focuses on nostalgia as a
globalised process and the matter of revolution.’ The exhibition ends at 9PM.

For live music, head to After Eight in Downtown Cairo for
Salalem, a band known for their humorous/sarcastic lyrics about the pressing issues
of Egyptian youth today. The show starts at 7PM. In need of some dancing? DJ
Junior will spin deep progressive and funky electro house at the Cairo Jazz
Club from 6:30PM onwards.

On Saturday, it’s another day of culture and live music: The
Cairo Opera House will hold a concert by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra  featuring the works of Tchaikovsky, while El Gomhoria Theatre dedicates its night of
Abdel Halim Hafez’s best songs to the spirit of the January 25th
revolution. Cairo Jazz Club features a live performance by Beshir, who blends traditional Egyptian songs with a mdoern twist. The show starts at 6:30PM.

The Cairo Documentary Festival continues at AUC’s New Campus
with an all-day program focusing on the Egyptian uprising and documentaries of
revolutionary times. Starting at 10:30AM and ending at 10PM, the festival
includes discussions with the documentaries’ filmmakers as well as the showing
of several documentaries on Iran and Egypt, and a streaming of short videos on
January 25th.

Photography
fans should check out the winners of the EU photo competition, exhibiting at
Townhouse Gallery in Downtown Cairo, while Safarkhan in Zamalek features ‘To
Egypt With Love’ an exhibition of the works of three young artists that
captured and documented the January 25th revolution. For non-revolution-related
art, try Amr Heiba’s exhibition at Mashrabia Gallery or Georges Bahgory’s
exhibition at Al Masar.