Festival of Iranian wedding ceremonies seeking sponsor

Tehran Times, Iran
Aug 21 2004

Tehran Times Culture Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) — The director of the Sa’dabad Historical and Cultural
Complex announced here this week that the Peyvand Festival, which
aims to showcase Iranian wedding ceremonies of various ethnic groups,
is seeking a sponsor. Mohammad Abdol-Alipur said that 1.8 billion
rials will be needed to organize the festival, adding, `If an Iranian
sponsor can not be found, the festival might look for a foreign
sponsor and hold the festival in a European country.’

Festival organizers want to use the event to introduce people to the
local dance, music, and traditions of wedding ceremonies in different
regions of Iran, such as the Gilaki wedding ceremony of northern
Iran, the wedding ceremony of Bushehr in southern Iran, which
features local music played on kettledrum and bagpipe, the wedding
ceremony of Loristan in western Iran, which features local music
played on kamancheh (Iranian fiddle), the Azeri wedding ceremony’s
lezgi dancing, the local costumes of the Kohkiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad
wedding ceremony, and Gerayli, the Qashqai wedding ceremony, in which
the groom hunts a ram while local music and dances are performed.

The wedding ceremonies of Iran’s Zoroastrians and Armenian and
Assyrian Christians will also be featured at the festival.