CAIRO — The 28th edition of the Salah Al-Din Citadel International Festival for Music and Singing is undoubtedly a success insofar as attendance is concerned. The festival took place Aug. 12-Sept. 2 and was attended by 13,000 spectators; 42 concerts took place. However, the festival — which prides itself on being international — had one major problem: It had just three singers from abroad.

The three singers — Syria’s Majd Alqasem, Tunisia’s Ghalia Benali and Lebanon’s Tania Kassis — were far from being regional superstars.

For many organizers in the entertainment sector, the weak presence of foreign artists at Egyptian international festivals is becoming far too common. Ouf Hammam, president of the Alexandria International Song Festival — a private festival under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture — admitted Aug. 1 that the 16th edition of his festival would include only two concerts by Arab singers: Nawal Al Zoghbi from Lebanon and Sofia Sadek from Tunisia. A few days later, the Alexandria festival announced the cancellation of the festival due to the lack of resources and the health issues of its president.

Regional stars have also been conspicuously absent from live concerts. Egyptian TV Nights — concerts organized by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union throughout the summer — used to host about two dozen of Arab stars from the region. But this year, only five singers — Lebanon's Haifa Wehbe, Dolly Shahine, Ragheb Alama, Yuri Mrakadi and Tunisia’s Saber Rebai — showed up.