As part of our wider arts work with festivals, we launched Festival Making in the Arab Region: The Evolving Paradigms of the Festival Landscape, a new report capturing key insights and practical recommendations shaped by festival directors, producers and cultural leaders from Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.
This report is the outcome of discussions held in Edinburgh last August as part of the In Between x Momentum initiative, where participants came together to reflect on how festivals must adapt to social, political and technological change while remaining spaces for connection and exchange. Based on open and in-depth conversations, it shows that festivals continue to offer much more than entertainment. They are places for dialogue, identity, community strength and artistic freedom.
The report sets out a clear vision for stronger and more sustainable festival ecosystems. It calls for festival-makers to diversify funding models, build long-term relationships with audiences, work together across sectors and countries, and use technology in ways that support human connection. It also highlights the need to work closely with local communities, champion under-represented voices and care for the wellbeing of artists and cultural workers.
The insights and practical steps shared in the report will inform the British Council’s wider Fadaa’aat programme, which supports the festival landscape across the region as a driver of creative exchange, artist development and cultural sustainability. This work reflects our commitment to helping festival-makers and communities connect, learn and build new models that respond to real needs and shape the futures they want.