TEHRAN - The Director of the Nomadic Music Festival Jahangir Nashr-Ashrafi said here yesterday that the festival's purpose is to provide a venue for various tribes to become better acquainted with each other and to promote our national culture.

"A great part of Iran's history, aesthetics, love of homeland, and religious beliefs is rooted in the culture of Iranian nomads and there are hundreds of songs preserved in the active mind and memory of nomads that are yet to be documented and archived," Nashr-Ashrafi said.

"As a result of a wide variety of cultures which exist among our tribes, the festival will not be held in a competition form," he continued, adding that the aim is to better acquaint the nomads with each other, and the presence of artists taking part in the festival -- with each representing a particular culture - also serves as a national-cultural movement," he explained.

It is worth mentioning that the Nomad's first Music Festival entitled "Kooch" (immigration), is sponsored by the Music Center of the Art Bureau in collaboration with provincial officials of Lorestan, and will be held September 19-29 at the Falak-ul-Aflak Fort of Khoramabad.