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Two days ago I went to the newly opened Beirut Souks, Beirut’s new largest shopping area, which was rebuilt by Solidere according to the original grid plan and location of the old souks that were destructed during the civil war while maintaining the landmarks and street names.

To my disappointment, the new Beirut Souks look nothing similar to the image I have in my mind for the old Beirut, and I’m pretty sure the new image defies the memories that old people who knew the old souks have in their mind.

In my opinion Solidere did a horrible job at preserving our heritage there as the new souks no longer reflect the real identity of Beirut, in fact the new souks have no identity at all! Nothing inside that big mall makes you feel like you’re in Beirut except for the “decorative” street plates of course. Be the judge yourself by looking at the photos I took below, it can be Dubai, Paris, or whatever other city!

Add to that the fact that the old souks were a destination to almost all society classes prior to the civil, while right now Beirut Souks is another destination for the snobbish people in Lebanon, I really cannot imagine a low income individual being able to spend a day there. Once again, Solidere probably had the Arab tourists in mind when they designed this place! Just like what they did when they were rebuilding the other parts of the central district.

To me, the Hamra street is a much more authentic Beiruti street than the new Souks of Beirut, though it is full of new restaurants and outlet stores but it has at least maintained its spirit throughout the years.

At the end, I will leave you with this comparative video between the old souks of Beirut and the new ones.

Parking meters around Beirut all allow free parking after 5 or 6 PM except in Solidere! As you can see in the below photo, free parking is only allowed after 11 PM (Monday to Saturday).

In addition, as shown in the below photo a flat rate of 3,000L.L applies between 8 & 11 PM (Monday to Saturday), and to my knowledge it doesn’t exist anywhere else, even in the busy Hamra street.

So what’s so special about Solidere to set the parking meters in it that way?!

As I posted earlier, La Fete De La Musique was set on Sunday June 21st. I didn’t attend the event in its previous versions, so this was my first time, and I’m definitely going again next year!

I went to Gemmayze, Downtown, Samir Kassir, and finally ended it Hamra. The whole experience was really great, no matter what your music choice is, you could have enjoyed it at one of the set places. I was mostly excited to see Machrou’ Leila playing in Downtown but for some reason I missed it!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with some of the photos I took during the evening, they’re all clickable.

Gemmayze

I got to Gemmayze at around 8:30PM, they were playing nice old Arabic music.

Downtown

Moving to The Martyr’s square, in the photos below you can see a band named “Ashekman” (echappement), made up of a twin of brothers, it was all about rap and hip hop there.

Samir Kassir

I really don’t know what kind of music was playing at Samir Kassir statue, but it was really nice! It was too crowded there for me to get a nice photo, all I got is this!

Hamra

Hamra street was for alternative rock lovers, I watched two bands and the music was once again, nice!

See you next year!

As I was walking in Hamra on Saturday, I encountered a group of guys at the end of the Hamra street doing graffiti.

I had a small chit-chat with them and learned that they call themselves “the REK crew” (Red Eye Kamikazes), as they said they have been doing graffiti in the same spot for several Saturday and they will be there this week.

I found a couple of groups for them on Facebook, the first is Bombing Beirut ( bombing is just another term for doing graffiti), and the second is REVO Graffiti Crew.

I of course didn’t leave the spot without taking some photos! (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge)