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Egyptian Fantasia

12 September 2006

You have to pity young freshers at Edinburgh University hoping for the traditional boozy introduction to university life.

Forget pubbing and clubbing, it's good, wholesome, daytime fun at this year's freshers' week. …

It will be a very different scene at UCL on Saturday night, when the shishah pipes come out and handmaidens wait on guests in a Bedouin tent. UCL will be transformed into a 1930s Cairo souk for its Egyptian Fantasia, with musicians and dancers performing while guests consult the Sphinx. British artists Tracy Emin and Bridget Riley are among many who have donated works for an auction at the glitzy event, being organised to raise funds to house the space-starved UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. …

Alexandra Smith and Donald MacLeod, 'The Guardian'