TIRIS musical band performed last Wednesday at the Cultural Centre of Salisbury City as a part of the preparatory activities for SANDBLAST Festival that will be held in the first week of this November in London.

TIRIS arrived to London last week within a Saharawi delegation composed by Saharawi artists, intellectuals, Human Rights activists as well as international academics, artist and friends of the Saharawi people.

Before the concert, the members of TIRIS animated a workshop on the Saharawi traditional dance followed by the concert which included several traditional dances and modern songs that will soon be launched in a new CD during SANDBLAST Festival.

Recently, the Saharawi music band was highly acclaimed during a couple of concerts performed in Leeds and Whitby, last Saturday and Sunday respectively.

The first appearance of the band was at the Music Department of Leeds University and lasted for an hour and a half, where TIRIS conquered the audience.

In the second concert, TIRIS had to move to the northern city of Whitby to take part in the annual World Music Festival along with several international music celebrities coming from different parts of the world.

The Saharawi cause was always present during the concerts since Tiris was introduced as a young Saharawi group who are struggling with their voice and artistic talents to preserve the Saharawi cultural heritage and the right of the Saharawi people to independence and subsistence.

Before the concert performed at Leeds University, a short documentary film on the Saharawi people’s struggle for independence was played as well as a short presentation about the political and historical background of the conflict by Mr. Malainin Lakhal, Secretary General of the Saharawi Journalists’ Writers’ Union *(UPES).

Alongside Tiris, which will be participating in all the SANDBLAST activities and launch its first album produced by the SANDBLAST charity, the Saharawi delegation is composed by the well-known Saharawi puppeteer and poet, Brahim Mohamed Brahim, alias “Belgha”, Malainin Lakhal, S.G of UPES, Zrug Lula, member of UPES, the poet Mohamed “Elkeihal” as well as the photographer Hayetna and the painter and sculptor Salek Brahim.

The rest of the Saharawi delegation that will take part to SANDBLAST Festival are expected to arrive to London in few days, mainly Mrs. Jadiya Hamdi, member of the Saharawi Women Union and MP, Mrs. Aminetu Haidar, Human rights activist and Former political prisoner and the poetess Zahra Hasnawi.