Tariq Ali, winner of the Granadillo Award in the 7th Festival of Cultures

The Pakistani writer Tariq Ali is the winner of the 2010 Granadillo Award in the 7th Festival of Cultures which will take place on January 2, 2010, to commemorate the Taking of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs.
The pianist Juan Gallego-Coín, Director of the Festival, stated that this award is to appreciate Ali’s labor “in favor of dialogue between Cultures”.
The writer, who is also film director and historian, will take part in a meeting in the Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios, where the assistants can talk directly to the Pakistani intellectual.
Gallego-Coín has highlighted that the Festival is celebrated due to the “need” by the different cultures, not to the “tolerance”, because this term entails discrimination against one culture group that is allowed to coexist with another.
This year’s Festival will have in addition a novelty Young Festival of Cultures which will be held in the Teatro Alhambra, with the intention of “giving support to young artists”, as explained by Gallego-Coín.
In this event, three young upper dance students together with the M31 company will perform the work “The Alhambra told to the children”.
The classic Festival of Cultures in the Teatro Isabel La Católica will offer the performances by the soloists of the Convent Garden of London, the violinist Vasko Vassilev and the pianist Juan Gallego-Coín, inaugurating the Chopin Year 2010.
Furthermore, the artists will have this year the opportunity to present projects of their work to aim for supports for divulging and finishing of these projects.
Therefore is opened a forum to exchange ideas and also will be shown in the Theatro Isidoro Máiquez “The next step project”, an audio-visual work with electronic music by Manu Durán, who makes music for great speeches in History.
The Festival will be completed by four workshops in the Parque de las Ciencias, organized by the Fundation Legado Andalusí, on the following topics: Story-tellers, Andalusian scents, Oriental dance and Percussion.
Except for the classic Festival, admission is free (with limited seats) for visitors with invitations that can be picked up from tomorrow on at the Ticket Offices at the different theaters.
The classic Festival of Cultures has a “symbolic admission prize” of 10 €, as explained by Gallardo-Coín, to make possible that people will not consider the financial situation as an obstacle to attend to the event.