Beirut's fashionable nightlife continues amid tensions

By Weedah Hamzah Dec 3, 2006, 16:22 GMT

Beirut - Beirut's famous nightlife scene has continued to flourish despite its main entertainment street having been taken over by a different crowd staging street protests to try to overthrow the anti-Syrian government of Fouad Seniora.

The city center famous for its luxurious nightclubs and restaurants is now partially closed because some thousands of pro- Syrian demonstrators, mainly Shiite Hezbollah militant followers, are staging an open-ended sit-in to pressure premier Seniora to resign.

The crowd in this area looked different from the crowd usually found on weekends.

Instead of luxurious cars driven by fashionably-dressed Lebanese ladies going to the Buda Bar in Riad el Solh street, today veiled women dressed in black chadors and carrying Hezbollah flags and pictures of their leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah have taken over the sceene in downtown Beirut.

But the protests have not kept the determined nighttime clients of downtown Beirut away. Some 200 metres away from where the protestors are, the fun-seekers have descended on Jimayzah street, where pubs and restaurants were opened as usual.

'We are the Lebanese who want to live,' said Christian Sima Tabet. 'We do not care for the pro- or the anti-Syrian camps ... We want to live in this country with other sects and enjoy our country's famous nightlife.'

Business was as usual in Jimayzeh, as if nothing is on go on the other side of the street. Clients stood in queues to get a seat in restaurants or a pubs in the area.

'We are over booked for tonight,' said Walid Attaya, owner of a local restaurant called Bread. 'Only on Friday when the massive protest took place business was slow but during the weekend we are booked out.'

A few meters from the Martyr Square where the protestors have also set up several tents and were staging their political protest, another fashionable event was taking place.

It was the Lebanese diva Fayrouz who was brightening the scene with her long awaited musical concert 'Sah Al Nom.'

Lines of luxury cars were seen arriving at the Biel auditorium where the concert was staged, with well-dressed Lebanese men and women getting out in order to attend the Fayrouz show, singing their favorite Lebanese songs.

'Fayrouz is performing again and I am coming to see her despite all the tension this country is witnessing,' said Kinda Maalouf, a Lebanese who came from Italy for the concert. 'We Lebanese are survivors we will never give up.'

Fayrouz was to have performed her 'Sha Al Nom' concert at the ancient Roman acropolis in Baalbeck, eastern Lebanon at last summer's annual international summer festival. But Israel's 33-day war against Hezbollah in July forced the performance to be cancelled.

Fayrouz's organizers decided to move the concert to Beirut instead. Fayrouz had not performed here since 1994, and tickets were completely sold out, one of Fayrouz's organizers said.

'Fayrouz is the symbol of Lebanon...She brings all the Lebanese together,' said one concert-goer in tears.