Les Dunes Electroniques returns to Tunisian desert
Les Dunes Electroniques, an electronic music festival held on a former Star Wars set in Tunisia, returned for the first time since 2014 last weekend, welcoming around 6,000 dance music and sci-fi fans to the Sahara desert for two days of music.
Taking place on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November at Ong Jemel, near the border city of Tozeur, Les Dunes Electroniques (‘the Electronic Dunes’) debuted in 2014 but had been on indefinite hiatus since the 2015 terror attack at a tourist resort in Port El Kantaoui.
Boasting ‘30 hours of non-stop music’, the 2019 festival featured performances by 30 DJs, including Luciano, Apollonia, Baris K, Archie Hamilton, Parallells and Nicolas Lutz, across two stages.
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According to RFI, Les Dunes Electroniques 2019 was organised by a Franco-Tunisian hotelier, with backing from the Tunisian tourist industry.
Ong Jemel was one of several Tunisian sites used in both the original and prequel Star Wars trilogies, serving as Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader)’s childhood home of Mos Espa, on Tattooine, in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Speaking to AFP, Melissa Fleury, a 22-year old festivalgoer who travelled from France, said: “I love festivals in France, but here in the desert and in the midst of this landscape, it is magical.”
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