Le Festival au Désert

(Click here to view an audio slideshow by Peter DiCampo on TIME.com)

Walking across the grounds of the Desert Festival in this small, sandy village outside Tombouctou (Timbuktu) in northern Mali, the first impression was that foreign tourists had taken over.

They arrived in packs, at least 800 of them, pulling up in giant 4x4 jeeps and, it seemed, rushing from their cars to immediately begin haggling over handcrafted jewelry and camel rides.

The Malians who weren't performing catered to the crowd. The local Tuareg tribesmen erected tents for the crowds to sleep in, dressed up in their most traditional and, they claimed, authentic gear to appeal to tourist customers, and then wandered about hawking everything from hot sweet tea to phone cards.

The Desert Festival is billed as one of West Africa's greatest cultural events, featuring the haunting chants of Tuareg music wafting across the dunes in a remote spot near Timbuktu. But it seemed to be little more than a big backpackers' party on the dunes.

Then the music started. And the Malians - Tuareg and otherwise - reacted with unbridled enthusiasm. From the moment the first notes were sounded, kicking off the first day of the three-day concert, it was clear that the American and European travelers were merely guests. The Desert Festival was very much a Malian cultural celebration.

Click here to view an audio slideshow by Peter DiCampo on TIME.com