Organised by the Egyptian National Centre for Theatre, Music and Folk Arts and held from 24 to 26 May the conference brought together participants from Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, Hong Kong, the U.S. and Germany with artists, researchers, journalists and representatives from several authorities in Egypt. The programme was pretty packed, the debates were heated. The English issue of Ahramonline published two critical reports by Dalia Basiouny (1, 2).