Carthage opens its sixtieth edition with Saber Rebaï and closes with the return of Majida El Roumi

There is a particular hour at Carthage when the heat lifts off the stone, the sea goes from blue to ink, and the first note travels up through two thousand years of theatre to the highest row of seats. That hour belongs again this summer to the Festival International de Carthage, back for its sixtieth edition on the same restored Roman stage that has carried more legends than any other in the Arab world. The programme is out, and it reads like a map of the region's voices.

Six decades on one stage

The festival opened in 1964, under Habib Bourguiba, as a statement that the young republic would speak to the world in the language of music and theatre. It kept the promise. The roll call of Carthage runs through a century of song. Oum Kalthoum and Fairuz stood here, so did Warda, Saber Rebaï and Majida El Roumi, and so did James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Charles Aznavour, Julio Iglesias, then later Stromae, OneRepublic and Jason Derulo. The setting does half the work. Thousands of seats rise in a clean arc of pale stone, open to the night, with the Gulf of Tunis below and the ruins of ancient Carthage all around, a UNESCO site that turns a concert into something closer to a rite.

The opening and the closing

The honour of the opening night goes to Saber Rebaï, and few choices would land better. The Tunisian star, a prince of Arab tarab whose voice carries a crowd from its first phrase, opening the sixtieth edition on home soil is the kind of symmetry Carthage loves. The man who gave the world "Sidi Mansour" knows exactly how to set a season alight.

The closing belongs to Majida El Roumi, returning to the stage after roughly eight years away. The Lebanese soprano brings the grand classical Arabic register, the held note and the orchestral sweep, with promised classics like "Kun Sadiqi". It is the sort of finale that empties the tear ducts of an entire amphitheatre and sends a crowd home humming.

The names on the bill

Between those two nights, the programme gathers the whole map of Arab music and a few surprises with it.

Cheb Khaled carries the other Maghreb on his shoulders, the king of raï out of Oran, and a night of "Aïcha" and "Didi" will have the stone tiers dancing before the second song.

Elissa, the Lebanese queen of the love song, turns an amphitheatre into one vast chorus, every romantic refrain sung back at her louder than the speakers.

Wael Jassar offers the velvet end of the register, the Lebanese voice of longing, tarab and ballad pitched for a slow summer evening.

Tamer Ashour brings the younger crowd, the Egyptian songwriter of modern heartbreak whose melodies fill arenas across the region.

Mayada El Hennawi is the living link to the golden age, the Syrian diva of the long phrase, a masterclass in the art the older rows came for.

Adam takes the stage on 11 August, the Lebanese voice of melancholy returning after a strong Carthage night last season, an evening built for romance and pure tarab.

Yasmine Hamdan adds a different texture entirely, the Lebanese singer who helped invent a cool, alternative Arabic pop and carried it from underground Beirut to the wider world. Her set is the one for listeners who want the stone theatre to feel modern.

Nabiha Karaouli holds the home corner beside Rebaï, the Tunisian grande dame of national song and malouf, and a Moroccan Boudchart set rounds out the bill with a contemporary, interactive pulse that reaches across the Maghreb.

A stage that keeps faith with the region

Carthage has always been more than a concert series. From its earliest editions it served as a platform for Arab causes, and the tradition holds. Last summer the programme made room for a night for Gaza and for the Palestinian voices the festival has long championed, and the sixtieth edition carries that same thread of solidarity through its line-up. The theatre has a long habit of holding celebration and conscience in the same evening.

How to be there

Tickets sell through the festival site at festivaldecarthage.tn and the Tunis Events platform, with physical sales points at the theatre itself and at the Cité de la Culture on Rue Mohamed V. Last year seats ran from around twelve euros up to sixty for the marquee nights, a small price for an evening on a Roman stage above the sea. Arrive a good hour early for the big soirées, since security and access take time, and carry a light layer, because the Carthage night can turn cool even in August.