On Thursday 22 February, the 6th Aswan International Festival for Culture and Arts concluded its activities with the celebration of the alignment of the sun on the face of Ramses II’s statue at Abu Simbel Temple in the presence of a large audience.

The visually invigorating closing ceremony, which took place in the evening of 21 February at Abu Simbel Temple, featured Egyptian and foreign troupes.

They presented their performances in the presence of Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem, Governor of Aswan Major General Magdi Hegazi, head of the General Organisation of Culture Palaces Ahmed Awwad and head of the Egyptian Centre for Foreign Cultural Relations Hisham Mourad.

The ceremony was attended by a large audience of Aswan locals and tourists.

Also participating were folk dance troupes from Aswan, Ismailia, Alexandria, the New Valley, Luxor, Toshka, Halayeb, Shalatin and Sohag.

Among the participating foreign countries were Ethiopia as the guest of honour, as well as Sudan, Tunisia, China, Thailand and Greece.

India’s renowned 10-member Rajasthani Dance group, led by Swarop Khan, gave several performances, including in the opening and closing ceremonies of the festival. Rajasthan dances are essentially folk dances tracing their origin to rural customs and traditions.

Some performances were held at different venues in Aswan City and were open to the public free of charge.

Rajasthani dance troupe (India) (Photo: courtesy of the Egyptian Centre for Foreign Cultural Relations)

The Egyptian dance troupes performing in front of Abu Simbel Temple (Photo: courtesy of the Egyptian Centre for Foreign Cultural Relations)

Ethiopian dance troupe (Photo: courtesy of the Egyptian Centre for Foreign Cultural Relations)