17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Lebanon, UAE, KSA, Jordan... Our selection of cultural events to attend this weekend
When every weekend blurs into a never-ending scroll of flyers, exhibitions, and underground gigs, having too many options can feel a lot like having none. That's where we come in. Starting today, L'Orient Today is teaming up with The MYM Agenda to guide you through the fray.
Every Thursday, we'll handpick the cultural happenings across the Middle East that are actually worth your time, whether it's a Beirut book launch, a rooftop concert in Amman, or an experimental film screening in Tunis. Consider this your weekly shortcut to what matters in the region's buzzing cultural scene.
Starting Thursday, the city of Ehden (in Zgharta) kicks off its annual "Ehdeniyat International Festival," giving everyone a chance to run away from the sweltering Beirut heat and take refuge in North Lebanon's evergreen mountains. Famed pianist Guy Manoukian will be there to christen weeks of performances by local and international artists like Abeer Nehme and our moms' favorite, Kadim al-Sahir.
You have until August to catch Caracalla's rendition of 'One Thousand and One Nights,' a story as iconic as the dance crew on stage. Known for their ruthless attention to detail and commitment to perfection, their dancing promises to transport you through each tale's endless twists and turns.
Catch them at Theatre Caracalla, Horsh Tabet. For tickets and details, click here.
This weekend in Al Quoz, Dubai, Ayyam Gallery's multimedia exhibition "Wavering Hope" continues to explore the different facets of Syrians' collective trauma. How do 14 years of civil war and decades of cruel rulers impact a people? And in the aftermath of conflict, is there space for hope? The 12 artists on display try to answer these questions and make space for optimism, no matter how fragile.
For details, click here.
In the same neighborhood, artist Nazgol Ansarinia is bringing you the streets of Tehran with her exhibition "Instruments of Viewing and Obscurity" at Green Art Gallery. Ansarinia zooms in on Iran's urban sprawl and Brutalist architecture, turning them into points of departure through which to question state and social control, in a world where the house is an extension of the body and the window that of the eye.
This month, Ithra, known as the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, is hosting its annual July festival, offering a program packed with something for every age and interest. When it's too hot to do anything else, skip the beach and catch the children's activities this week, or pick up a chessboard, paintbrush, or calligraphy pen to create your own fun.
Check the full program here.
If Ithra's too much of a drive, Al-Ula in Medina Province is offering an equally immersive experience of exhibitions, shows and activities sprinkled around the city, so you never run out of things to do. And if somehow nothing entices you, strolling through the larger-than-life naturally formed sculptures in the desert landscape would be enough to keep you occupied.
Check the full program here.
This weekend, painter Laila Shaw's "Voices from Gaza" continues to take center stage as part of the artist's reflections on her homeland's violent destruction. Shaw invites us to walk along the walls of Gaza, through layers of graffiti, political slogans and symbols of resistance, building a landscape of resistance as emotional as it is visual. What once represented the cornerstones of where she lived are now being used as calls against erasure and exile.
The exhibition is on display at the Contemporary Art Platform, Shuwaikh Industrial, Kuwait. For details, click here.
In its first weekend at Orfali Art Center in Amman, Jordan, painters Ashtar Nasralla and Hiba al-Lami explore people's connections with each other and nature, and how the two are often interchangeable. Though the paintings are faceless, they still lure you in to feel the bond of the figures standing behind the blue and green trees; a feeling both experimental and human.
Cairo's landmark Mashrabia Gallery is welcoming back artists, new and old, who have shaped its journey and turned it into a hub for local contemporary art. Their exhibition is not a retrospective but rather a new beginning in a genre that is always evolving.
