Festival Beshekel brings good music at a great price to Jerusalem
The annual Festival BeShekel's noble goal has been to bring top-quality music to the people at a price everyone can afford: one shekel (about a quarter of a dollar). Organizers of the festival have focused their efforts on the poorer of Israel's cities, and have placed a priority on bringing the festival to towns outside the center of both the geographic land and Israel's national consciousness. Unfortunately as a reflection of her mixed economic status and fortunately as an opportunity for her music lovers, the festival returns to Jerusalem next week, in a bid to truly bring music to the masses.
A good portion of Jerusalem indeed fits the poor city mold for the festival, and though the 2010 incarnation of the festival is focusing on mixed Jewish-Arab towns, of which Jerusalem is certainly the largest, that is not the sole reason the festival is returning for a Holy City stop. Rather, two large sponsors, the Schusterman Foundation and the Jerusalem Foundation, do most of their work in town, and so organizers decided to hold the concert in one of the city's less affluent neighborhoods, Kiryat Menachem.
It probably also didn't hurt that the festival's most visible founder, Shaanan Streett of funk-rap group Hadag Nachash, is a huge Jerusalem backer, having also been involved with curating specialty music nights at Beit Avi Chai and fostering local student nightlife at his own Reznik pub on Mount Scopus. Co-founder Carmi Wurtman, an entertainment promoter, is no Jerusalem slouch himself, overseeing the annual Woodstock Revival concert at Kraft Field, and having brought top international talent including the Black Eyed Peas and Macy Gray to town in recent years.
Festival BeShekel is unique in that it serves as a sort of local "battle of the bands," with the winners, chosen by bona fide Israel music stars, performing alongside national acts. For the September 6th Jerusalem show, that means homegrown garage heroes will be sharing the stage with the likes of Hadag Nachash (pictured, with horns), Karolina (pictured, with large hair, fresh off her appearance at the Tower of David's funk party) and Dudu Tassa.
Like any good festival, the Festival BeShekel also offers street theater and other goings-on for those who prefer to wander while they listen along to live music. The Jerusalem show kicks off at 16:40 in the lot behind the Histadrut Building, near the corner of Costa Rica and Hahalmit Streets. in Katamonim. The symbolic entrance fee helpes give participants a sense of buy-in, and also supports a little bit of the production budget.
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