THE HEART OF A LEGENDARY FESTIVAL CELEBRATED Afropop Worldwide and Link TV are proud to announce the broadcast premiere of "The Festival in the Desert, The Tent Sessions" an intimate performance documentary about the 2003 festival featuring Ali Farka Touré, Tartit, Robert Plant and Justin Adams, a host of exquisite musicians playing astounding music---and plenty of camels!

The debut broadcasts will be four different times on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5-6 and then repeated regularly afterwords. Link is available by satellite from the Dish Network and Direct TV. More details on www.linktv.org.

The Festival in the Desert held outside Timbuktu has become the destination of choice for world music cognoscenti. Initially conceived as a way for the nomadic Tuareg people to unite with their brethren who had been disbursed by a now resolved political upheaval, it has transformed into a splendid event; one that has attracted some of the best musicians that West Africa and the world has to offer.

While the main stage performances have been captured in the recently released DVD "Festival in the Desert" (World Village), Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre of Public Radio International's Afropop Worldwide sought out and filmed the spontaneous sessions that occurred in the tents peppering the sand dunes around the festival site. They caught extraordinary moments, music made by people whose names may be as yet unfamiliar to western ears, but whose voices and virtuosity are unforgettable. Highlights include Haira Arby a woman with a voice and heart as big as the desert where she was born, electric guitarist Lobi Traore who traveled many miles from the capital city of Bamako in the south of Mali to participate and absorb new sounds and experiences, and Baba Djire whose haunting tenor voice is pure pleasure. Even aficionados of world music will find the performances captured here to be rare and inspiring. (For a full listing of musicians, see attached bios.)

The musicians provide insights into their own music and context for the festival itself through interviews. Fans of Led Zeppelin will particularly enjoy Robert Plant's articulate discussion of his passion for Northern and Western African music. As he says " This music has none of the vanity, none of the conceptions of what music can represent in these incredibly disposable times." His main stage performance of "Win My Train Fare Back Home" (which he graciously agreed to give to both of the Festival in the Desert films) shows him to be in fine form along with guitarist Justin Adams, and integrating the trancelike elements of African music with his signature Blues/Rock singing.

From magnificent camel riders to enchanted lantern-lit sand dunes "The Festival in the Desert; the Tent Sessions" captures the sights and sounds of the event so well that it is the next best thing to making the arduous journey one's self.

"The Festival in the Desert; the Tent Sessions" premiered on Link TV on Dec. 4th and will be repeated in the broadcast schedule.

Link TV is a nationwide non-commercial satellite station available as a basic service (free) in over 22 million US homes through the Dish Network and Direct TV. Since its launch in December of 1999 it has broadcast music from around the world, in music video blocks and documentaries. It has contributed significantly to the public's awareness of music other than that which is readily available through mainstream sources. One of the channel's goals is to foster understanding and appreciation of other cultures through music….and it works!

Afropop Worldwide is the ground-breaking weekly public radio program that is hosted by Georges Collinet and distributed by PRI to over 100 stations in the U.S. and by XM satellite radio. Since 1988 the program has introduced Americans to the sounds and stories of contemporary African and African Diaspora music. The program, its companion web site Afropop.org, weekly e-Newsletter, archives and collaborative projects inspire music fans, journalists, concert presenters and educators, building the market for African artists. Afropop Worldwide is produced by World Music Productions, based in Brooklyn. The program's Executive Producer, Sean Barlow, has contributed to the development of Link TV's music programming since its beginning in 1999.

This co-production between Afropop Worldwide and Link TV is the first in a projected series which will include coverage of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco, the Coca-Cola Ebony Festival held in Dakar, Senegal, and the Sauti za Busara Swahili Sounds of Wisdom Festival in Zanzibar.

Afropop Worldwide's exclusive recordings of tent sessions recorded at the Festival in the Desert are available as fair trade digital downloads at the Afropop Music Shop at www.afropop.org.

Credits

"The Festival in the Desert; a Tuareg Homecoming" is a co-production between Afropop Worldwide and Link TV. Produced by Sean Barlow, Banning Eyre and Steven Lawrence. Interviews, Camera and Sound: Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre. Editor: Babak Rassi. Sound mix: Michael Jones. Writer: Banning Eyre. Narrator: Georges Collinet Additional Camera: Moulaye Sayah

Music from the Film, an exclusive set of live 'field recordings' produced by Afropop Worldwide and only available in our own Afropop Shop. www.tentsessions.afropopshop.org

NOTE: this is NOT the film 'The Festival in the Desert" now available on DVD. Same edition of the Festival but ours is more focused on the backstage life of the Festival.