The opening concert for the Jazz Factory music festival took place 5 November in the lyrical scenery of the Manial Palace gardens in Cairo. The concert featuring musicians from Germany, Spain and Norway, all representing completely different genres of jazz, reflected the width and diversity of the festival's musical spectrum. Norway was represented with world-famed experimental jazz musician Nils Petter Molvær and Egypt friend and saxophonist Trygve Seim together with accordionist Frode Haltli and the Egyptian group Sharikat Fathy Salama.
Renowned Norwegian world music and jazz musician Jon Balke with his virtuosic Arab-European quintet performed improvised music based on the structures of Andalusian music and early baroque at Amir Taz Palace, Cairo, Thursday 6 November. Nils Petter Molvær, Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli followed with a concert at the Open Air Genayna Theatre in Al Azhar Park, Cairo, the same da.
Concluding the Norwegian contributions to the festival, the Siwan group consisting of Amina Alaoui, Jon Balke, Bjarte Eike and an ensemble of 17 musicians held a concert at El Gomhouria Theatre, Cairo, Friday 7 November. Siwan's music draw upon the ideas and sounds of the music of Al-Andalus which is a fascinating blend of Arabic and European music and poetry. The review of their programme is available both in English and in Arabic.
A lot of famous European musicians were performing in Egypt for the first time. These include Olah Kalman Trio (Ungarn), Štěpán Markovič Quintet (Czech Republic), Carlo Actis Dato Group (Italy), BSB Trio (The Netherlands), Radio String Vienna Quartet (Austria), Andre Ceccarelli Trio (France) and the English pianist Alex Wilson, to mention a few.