Festival in the Desert

The BBC has a nice slideshow about the Festival au Desert in Essakane, Mali, with music and lots of pretty pictures of camels. I told a few people not to go to this (from the US) because it's super expensive and hard to get to. But if you're looking for a way to drop several large and spend days in a broken-down SUV driven by a crazy ex-nomad guide, then maybe it's for you. I admit I've never gone and only heard the horror stories of travel, and ok, how great the actual show was. Four thousand people went this January. Now that Ali Farka Toure has died though, it's less of a draw, for me at least. Salif Keita was on the program but I wonder if he actually played. He's notorious for ditching out. Matthew McConaghey is also notorious for doing yoga half-naked on top of his SUV in the cool morning air at the festival - so I suppose you'd have to weigh those two things.

Thanks to Mom for the link.