A music concert by 22 artists from nine countries will take place on the eve of Fidel Castro’s 85th birthday, Saturday, August 13.

Concert coordinator and head of international affairs of the Guayasamin Foundation, Alfredo Vera, said that the cultural gala will be held at the Havana-based Karl Marx theater.

Painter Oswaldo Guayasamin, a close friend of Fidel Castro, celebrated the Cuban leader’s 70th birthday and after he died in 1999, his foundation marked Fidel’s 80th birthday in Havana while he was hospitalized.

The concert coincides with the stay in Havana of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who is receiving his second chemotherapy session, after a cancerous tumor was removed.