Over the past five years the Red Sea Guitar Festival has proven to be a crowd-puller. And why shouldn’t it be? The combo of guitar-led acts and pre-summer sunshine down in Eilat is the perfect recipe for a delightful spring break, great entertainment, and inducing a sense of fun, thrills and spills.
The sixth edition of the event takes place by the gently lapping Red Sea on March 20-22, with plenty of A-listers on the roster. The likes of Eviatar Banai, Aviv Geffen, Dudu Tassa and Sarit Hadad should get the virtual box office spinning.
Banai is probably the leading headliner on the bill and will bring his new show, Sihot Shalom (Peace Talks), to the Eilat fray.
The repertoire for the festival curtain-raiser is something of a retrospective and culls material from right across Banai’s discography to date. The organizers call his support cast “the best band in the Middle East,” to which he adds a string quartet, no less.
Mizrachi-leaning rocker Tassa, too, will dip into a broad seam of numbers from his professional timeline, including cuts off his latest release, Shemesh Ve’anan (Sun and Cloud), as well as songs from earlier records.
The Hadad date looks primed to do the business, with the veteran Mizrachi vocalist hosting equally stellar singer Ninet Tayeb, whose own oeuvre covers a very broad arc of styles and genres. The first-time twinning also looks set to pack ’em in.
If you’re looking for variety with plenty of punch, with some more intricate local sounds thrown in, the Mosh Ben-Ari slot on the second day looks a winner.
Ben-Ari is a formidable performer with a singularly emotive vocal delivery, who has spread his gifts across all kinds of musical styles, including Mizrachi, rock, reggae, and bluesy efforts.
His gig also features an impressive slew of guests, including long-standing reggae-hip-hop act Hatikva 6 and Mizrachi music stalwarts, powerhouse guitarist Yehuda Keisar and singer Rami Danoch, who founded Tzlilei Ha’oud in 1974.
Lazer Lloyd is also on the agenda
Anglos and fans of American and British rock and pop should be happy to see the names of the Sixties band and Lazer Lloyd on the festival agenda. Their March 21 late night concert marks 40 years on the road for the Sixties, which specializes in covers of hits of the likes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Animals, and the Mamas and the Papas. Together with US-born Lloyd, the band will play material from their joint program of hits by 1960s American rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Other names to look out for in Eilat in March include seasoned rock-pop guitarist-vocalist Danny Sanderson and his show with rock group Monica Sex, indie duo Lola Marsh, a threesome fronted by singer-songwriter Micha Shitrit, and singer-songwriter-rapper Jasmin Moallem. The Agamim Hotel will also host free late-night sessions.
For tickets and more information: https://redseaguitarfestival.co.il
