July 17 to 20, Harbourfront celebrates Iranian heritage. And there's quite a lot of it: though Farsi-speaking ethnic Persians make up about half the population of Iran, there are turkic Azeris in the North, on the border with the former Soviet Union; Kurds in the Northwest, sharing a common culture with their brethren in Turkey, Iraq and Syria; and Baluchis in the South, bordering Pakistan. Those are the main ethnic divisions. In all, there are 15. Each have their own unique traditions.

Tirgan is an ancient Iranian summer festival observed in July. According to the festival website, "one legend has it that Iran and Turan, two long standing enemies, decided to declare peace by demarcating the boundaries between the two empires. Arash, the best archer in the Iranian army, was chosen to ascend Mount Damavand to shoot an arrow whose landing location would determine the boundary. The arrow flew from dawn to noon and fell on the banks of Jihun, and the boundaries of Iran expanded beyond all expectations. This led to (the) Tirgan festival."

On Friday, there's a dance workshop led by Anna Djanbazian from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The music sounds Turkish. Some of the dances could, in fact, be Turkish, as the programme states Djanbazian will present folklore from other countries with close ties to Iran. Many of the dance moves look Slavic, especially the arm movements. This would be no surprise in an Iranian dance, since cultures meld into each other at border regions everywhere. Iran is a meeting place of East, West, North and South with a millenial past. Its inhabitants are the earliest Aryans, a trait shared with those of the Indian subcontinent. The line between these two cultures blurs in music, dance and many other aspects of life.

Next is Saeid Shanbezadeh, a musician and dancer backed by other performers. He hails from the city of Boushehr, in the southwest of Iran. The pamphlet handed out by volunteers explains that this city was built around 300 years ago by the ruler Nader Shah on the coast of the Persian Gulf and served as a commercial crossroads between Africa, Arabic countries and India. Shanbezadeh looks somewhat like a light-skinned African, but speaks fluent Farsi. The crowd shouts and applauds its appreciation frequently, especially when he takes his shirt off in a heatwave unrelieved by lake breezes and reveals a near-perfect six-pack. Apparently there is a ritual ceremony called "Zâr", which heals illness brought on by a malignant spirit through rythmic music and trance. Shanbezadeh has dedicated himself to preserving the rituals and traditions of Boushehr. His ensemble uses traditional instruments.

In fact, bagpipes come from Mesopotamia, which of course is much older than Scotland. The ones Shanbezadeh uses are called ney-anbon. They seem less irritating than their European counterparts. The instrument looks like a big velvet bag, decorated with various trimmings. There's also ney-jofti, a double flute; damman, a bass drum with two faces; boogh, a trumpet made from the horn of a ram; and senj, the kind of metallic castanets usually associated with belly dancers in the West.

The last performance is Kurdish House: a series of dances by children and teenagers. They all look like young adults. The male dancers wave handkerchiefs in the air. Costumes here are different from more traditional Kurdish garb, with its colourful skirt panels and sleeve panels and a V-slit in the middle in a contrasting pattern, both for upper and lower body.

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Tirgan: an Iranian Festival at the crossroads of the world.