Tuesday, August 03, 2004

A GOOD REASON NOT EVEN TO VISIT - THE KLEZMER FESTIVAL

B"H

Every year large numbers of people crowd uncomfortably into the Old City of Tzfat to see the free shows in the various locations throughout the Old City.

There are no lockers in Tzfat, so unless you have a room here expect to carry your pack on your back. Getting a seat for the shows is difficult. You will be stampeded by the crowd and pushed along helplessly as you approach each show. Sitting on the hard stones, even on a pillow hurts after a few minutes. Crouching or sitting cross-legged on the ground, squashed between people on all sides is worse. Getting a comfortable meal in a restaurant is very difficult. The prices of the rooms to let are exorbitant. The Old City quickly becomes littered and worse - there is a dearth of Port-O-Sans and hardly anywhere to wash one's hands. Strangers have to rub up against strangers to get from one attraction to another. It's hardly modest.

I "did" the festival once - the first year we lived here. No more, thanks.

It would be much more pleasant, modest and salubrious in every way if the Klezmer Festival was spread out in the city. There is plenty of room in the South of the city for instance. The only reasonably-priced room to let I saw is in the South. The room in the South goes for $25 dollars per night, as opposed to rooms in the Old City for $75, $85, even $100 per night. But no shows are ever arranged in the South of Tzfat, or even in the shabbier areas of the Cana'an neighborhood for that matter, and those areas are never advertised...

Somebody hiding something???


P.S. This blog has made it to the search engines!

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