Moroccan musician Mansour Kulai'i participates in the fifth edition of the International Festival of Law Machine in Rabat, which is the annual date that brings together law lovers from different Arab countries.

Mansour's participation this year is different and far from the heat of a direct meeting with the public, after the festival management decided to organize this session in a hypothetical format, taking into account the current health conditions.

Mansour tells Al-Jazeera Net that musical instruments should not be silent due to the pandemic conditions, but rather they should, in turn, contribute to overcoming this crisis, and creating moments of joy and dream among people.

Theater has its charm and prestige for the professional player, Mansour, as direct interaction with the audience revives the spirit of the musician and pushes him to creativity, and yet he believes that musicians and artists in general must invest the available means to reach people in all circumstances, in times of trouble, as they did in times of good.

He added, "In this atmosphere charged with people's groans and fears, the law machine tries to speak without words and cultivate hope in the crowd despite the physical distancing, and this is a great challenge it faces."

Abdel Nasser Makkawi, director of the International Law Machine Festival, during the opening of the festival through the virtual formula (Al-Jazeera)

The law unifies hearts

The Riad Al-Qanun Foundation in Rabat - the organizer of the International Festival of the Law Machine - sought to maintain the date of its annual meeting with lovers of this instrument, and organized its fifth session with the support of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and with the participation of prominent players from Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco, under the slogan "Instrument" The law unites hearts. "

Through the screens, the musicians created their creativity with their fingers that joined with the ruler of the musical instruments, and they flew their fans on a journey of joy, hope, steadfastness and challenge.

Festival director Abdel Nasser Makkawi told Al-Jazeera Net that art has a role in breaking the hardships and relieving people amid the coercions and pressures that weigh on them. He added, "People in this pandemic also need art because it addresses the emotions and feelings, and this is the most important medicine they need."

And from the salon of his home in the capital, Rabat, the musician Abdel Nasser Mekkawi announced the launch of the festival and opened it with a prelude to the Andalusian heritage.

It seemed strange to him for a while, as the artist - as he believes - is at the height of his vitality and creativity when he directly confronts the audience, but in front of this new reality he sees that the artist should not stop creativity and giving, and he must fulfill his duty and communicate with people by various means.

Photo from the International Festival of Law Machine last year (Al-Jazeera)

Expand your audience

This virtual session enabled - according to its director - to expand the audience base inside and outside Morocco, after broadcasting performances and festival paragraphs on various social media sites.

This interaction made the organizers seriously consider combining the real and the virtual in the upcoming editions of the festival.

Children between the ages of 11 and 12 from Libya, Morocco and Lebanon participate in this session, and Abdel Nasser warns that children in Morocco and the Arab world are eager to learn the ancient law instrument despite what is said about its difficulty, pointing out that the goal of the Riad Al-Qanun Foundation is to preserve this musical instrument. And publish it nationally and internationally, and develop special academic programs and curricula to teach it to future generations.

During the previous four editions of the festival, 164 law musicians representing 10 countries participated in its activities in Rabat theaters.

The Riyadh Al-Qanun Foundation is moving forward rapidly to attract the public's interest in this instrument, and to host professional musicians from different Arab countries to share creative experiences, hoping that Rabat, the capital of lights, will become a music center that attracts lovers of this instrument across the world, and a bridge for communication between Arab peoples.

The goal of Riyadh Al-Qanun Foundation is to preserve this musical instrument and spread it nationally and internationally (Al-Jazeera)

Default festivals

Because of the pandemic conditions, international festivals in Morocco announced the cancellation of their sessions this year, including the International Film Festival in Marrakech and the Mawazine Festival of World Rhythms in Rabat, while others leaned towards digital organization in an effort to confront the pandemic with art, as they announced.

Among these festivals are the Maghreb Film Festival in Oujda, the Rabat International Festival of Authors' Cinema, the Agadir International Festival of Cinema and Migration, the International Film Festival of Shared Memory, the Asa Festival of Cinema and the Sahara, and the Andalusian Atlas Festival in Essaouira.

Faced with the closure of cinemas, the Moroccan Film Center decided to find an alternative during the health emergency, displaying on its website about 98 films that were watched by nearly 900,000 people in more than 100 countries, according to a report by the Ministry of Culture.