The Coalition for Independent Culture has announced the cancellation of Saturday’s El-Fan Midan event, replacing it with a protest to mourn the 74 people who died at the Port Said football disaster on 1 February.
On their Facebook page, the coalition said the protest would begin in Abdeen Square at 3pm and called for the participation of all of its members, artists and intellectuals, academics and members of the artistic unions, students, workers, and everyone who participated in the revolution.
Participants are asked to wear black and carry banners and pictures of those slain in the disaster.
The coalition calls for “not allowing the Mubarak regime to continue the massacre of Egypt’s youth.”
El-Fan Midan is one of the several projects held by the Coalition for Independent Culture.
Established in February 2011, the coalition consists of more than 80 organisations and 200 independent artists, writers and intellectuals who are using their creativity to promote messages of freedom and democracy to the widest possible audience, as well as being actively involved in protests against corruption, oppression, and attacks on peaceful protesters.
The coalition collaborates with like-minded political parties, youth coalitions and other organised bodies.
Over the past few months, the coalition has organised a number of protest marches and silent stands as a sign of opposition to dictatorship and violence.
One of their many protest actions was in early October, when the coalition called on the culture minister to intervene in the case of Fady Mostafa Said El-Sawy, who was arrested on 9 September, near the Israeli embassy on the night it was ransacked.
On Thursday 13 October the coalition held a silent vigil in memory of the Coptic victims of Black Sunday, when military police clashed with mostly Coptic Christian protesters near the Maspero state TV building.
November’s El-Fan Midan was dedicated to the Black Sunday martyrs.
Later the same month, in a call against military trials and in support for the release of blogger and political activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the coalition organised an artistic protest in Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo.
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