ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Groups of artists from five countries specializing in various mediums, performed along with Kurdish and Iraqi groups at the Festival of Different Cultures, organized in Sulaimani’s town of Ranya. The two-day festival started on Friday in Ranya’s Darwaza Park and is set to resume its activities for the third day in the town of Koya in Erbil province. Khalid Qadir, head of Rayal Organization which organized the event, said the festival is a yearly tradition for Rayal. Qadir said that despite the currently dire political and economic situation in the Kurdistan Region, his organization deemed it a good idea to hold the festival nevertheless, in order to ensure “art has its say on life, coexistence and peace”. Art groups from Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, and Ranya in the Kurdistan Region, Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, as well as Greece, Georgia, Iran, Ghana, and Azerbaijan have participated in the festival by engaging in different forms of artistic expression.
