Arab singers join Jordan festival despite Israel claims

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

AMMAN (AFP) — Jordan said on Wednesday that Arab singers have joined a controversial music festival despite claims it is being set up by the same company which organised Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations in May.

The month-long "Jordan Festival kicked off on Tuesday, and the audience exceeded our expectations and we ran out of tickets for some concerts," Tourism Board chief Nayef Fayez told AFP.

Popular singers like Jordanian Omar Abdallat, Lebanese Elissa and Syrian George Wassouf performed in the northern Greco-Roman city of Jerash, while Canadian jazz vocalist Diana Krall enchanted the crowds at the Roman Citadel site in downtown Amman, concert-goers told AFP.

The country's Islamist-dominated 14 professional trade unions and the Islamic Action Front...