The Galilee Foundation is pleased to have supported this year’s Shubbak Festival, which took place across London in May/June this year. The Foundation supported Shubbak’s extensive Palestine programme in particular, which included 10 events, approximately half of which were sold out.
Providing feedback after the events, audience members described it as “a beautiful moving celebration of Palestinian culture,” and “heartwarming to see Palestinian talent and culture celebrated”, saying: “It felt liberating to be celebrating them, and feel culturally close to them, in these times of oppression, censorship and stereotyping.”
This year’s Festival had a strong Palestine-focus with events including: MILK (opening the Festival – the largest Palestinian theatre production ever presented in the UK at the Southbank Centre); SADA – Voices of Palestine with DAM and Rola Azar, Dana Salah and Samaa Abdelhadi at the Barbican; and the PalArts Collaboration – a Celebration of Palestinian Theatre and Performance at Theatro Technis, including Ahmed Masoud’s play Application 39 (for the 2048 Gaza Summer Olympics), and Return to Palestine by the Freedom Theatre School in Jenin.
Across all of the Palestine-related events, there were 6,569 attendees, and press coverage included several reviews by The Guardian, Ahram Online, Hyphen Online, and Northwest End.
Together, the Palestine-related works made up just under a third of Shubbak’s programming.
Picture: Rula Azar at the Barbican
