Carthage to host cultural festival

International Carthage Festival 2012 Tunis - Nabil Zaghdoud The administrative body of the International Carthage Festival 2012 which will run from July 8 to August 15, released a statement, Tuesday,  revealing that this year's festival, the 48th in its history, will benefit from the new atmosphere of freedom prevailing in Tunisia, "as no censorship will be imposed on any artist." According to a press release, the festival committee assigned to select shows for this year's festival said they have adopted a policy "which is based on a clear vision that takes into account the needs of  the audience to be presented with a variety of  cultural and artistic styles". The committee has worked for many weeks selecting shows based on the quality of performances and getting the right balance of different artistic fields including music, dance, poetry, and cinema, while taking into account the  economic aspect, so that the festival would not add a financial burden on the national budget. The festival has ruled out inviting artists whose fees were "too expensive" or hosting shows which were "too elitist" but wanted to offer a varied programme which would satisfy "all tastes and age ranges." In his first year as Tunisia's minister of culture following the revolution, Mehdi Mabrouk, ruled out inviting popular Lebanese and Egyptian artists to the festival, including Nancy Ajram, Elissa and Tamer Hosni, saying his decision was based on "tyranny of the right sense".