Summer festivals highlight Lebanese resilience in shadow of war

BEIRUT, Aug 31: Hours after bombs ripped through the Lebanese city of Tripoli this month, concertgoers gathered for the opening performance of the Baalbek music festival. But it wasn’t in Baalbek, and the planned star didn’t come. Instead, Brazilian jazz vocalist Eliane Elias serenaded the crowd of 1,000 in an open-air theatre on the northern outskirts of the capital Beirut, far from the internationally renowned music festival’s historic venue among Roman ruins in the Bekaa Valley. (agencies)