Country Profile: Lebanon

This August, for the first time since 2019, the Byblos International Festival returned to the ancient port city on the Lebanese Mediterranean coast from which it takes its name.

With a little luck (or perhaps more than a little), the hope is surely that the return of the storied open-air festival signals a path back to normality, around a year after thousands were killed in Israeli air attacks that swept the country from the southern border to the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Byblos – now organised by Lebanese promoter In Action Live, a division of In Action Events – returned in multicultural style, with Lebanese-Armenian composer and pianist Guy…