What's on in Cairo - Staying Informed

My Editor at the Oasis (CSA's monthly magazine) asked me to write this article as I run whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com, 2 groups that inform its subscribers of events in Cairo well in advance, so you may book your tickets when they are still available.

The scan of the published article is here - on my blog of my published articles.

The article would be of interest to the readers of this blog & I post it here.

Stay Informed

Having moved to Egypt and settled into Daily Life, you would now like to explore the Cultural Scene in Cairo. But how do you know ‘What’ is taking place in town and ‘Where’?

Some English newspapers like Daily Star Egypt or Al Ahram Weekly give you a daily listing of events, but often by the time the paper arrives, it is too late to buy tickets to an event.

Your other option is the monthly magazines: Egypt Today, Community Times and the Croc. These magazines are a little more comprehensive than the daily newspaper and give you a little advance warning. You can subscribe to these magazines and newspapers by calling their offices or online.

A better option is to figure out which places you like to attend programs at and sign yourself up for their mailing list. Places like Makaan, el Genaina Theatre, Villa Grey, Institute Cervantes, Aliiance Francais, Diwan bookstore and others.

Places like the el Sawy Cultural Center bring out a monthly program in the last week of the preceding month in English, Arabic and French. You may need to visit their location to pick up the schedule.

The Opera House brings out its annual program at the beginning of the New Year in September. Since most acts are international, the programs are planned well in advance. You can buy the annual schedule at the Opera House in the evenings before a program starts. (It is not normally available at the Ticket Office)

www.yallabina.com does post movie listings and concert schedules, but they seem to have moved onto a more Middle East regional perspective, publicizing events in Dubai more than those in Cairo. Plus their information isn’t always 100% accurate as I found out the hard way, when trying to book tickets for the Disney Ice show which led me on a wild goose chase across Link Dot net offices. Friends have reported that the movie timings mentioned are mixed up pretty often. So the best way to use this site is, as a very general guideline and then call the location and verify details.

If you use Facebook, there are a number of online groups like Cairo Gigs and local bands whose groups you can join and then you will get a mail when they have a new concert planned in the city.

If you listen to 104.2 NileFM, you will get to hear of the major concerts and events happening in Cairo.

Expat Women’s clubs and The American Research Center in Egypt, have their own mailing lists and you automatically get sent mailers, once you are a paid up member.

Some special smaller scale events like the American Independence Day Party, the Green and Gold gala etc are advertised in the Oasis, so make sure you pick up your copy every month.

The www.livinginegypt.org site has an online calendar for CSA specific events with a feature that lets you automatically save an event in your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express calendar.

A simple alternative to signing up for multiple lists is to subscribe to whazzupcairo on googlegroups or yahoogroups. It is a completely free service where you receive notifications on events occurring across the city straight into your mailbox. You can save the events you are interested in, in your online calendar. Signing up is simple. Just send a blank mail to whazzupcairo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or whazzupcairo-subscribe@googlegroups.com and when you receive a mail to confirm that you requested the service, mail back with your approval. All you need is an email id.

If you find that the service brings too many emails into your inbox, you can switch to the digest version (25 emails together or one for all the emails in a day, whichever comes first) or no mail version, where you can continue to view the posts on the web.

If you check on even a few of these options, I am sure you will find a lot of events to fill up your time, especially your evenings and weekends.

Helpful Websites and Blogs:
http://egypttoday.com/
http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com/
http://www.livinginegypt.org
http://www.ct-egypt.com/
http://lulusbay.blogspot.com/
http://www.culturewheel.com
http://www.thetownhousegallery.com/
http://dailystaregypt.com/
http://www.yallabina.com/
http://www.saharasafaris.org/
http://www.cairochronicles.com/jack
http://www.fugatesincairo.blogspot.com
http://miloflamingo.blogspot.com
http://oldbagofcairo.blogspot.com
http://egypt4.wordpress.com
http://www.living-in-egypt-manisha.blogspot.com

Karishma Pais (Kim) is an expat trailing wife in Cairo. She has a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Behavior. She consults on HR projects, delivers intercultural training at the CSA, counsels new and experienced expats, writes for several magazines – online and offline, she runs whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com among other activities.
Her Social Commentary and blog about life in Egypt can be read at http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com