The Dawar Arts Festival, first launched in June 2022, with its fourth edition held this year from 19 to 25 June in Abdeen, Downtown Cairo, employs arts-based practices to bring communities together and promote lasting social transformation. For days, Cairo’s streets pulsed with exhibitions, music performances, and theatre events, drawing crowds into immersive experiences. This year’s festival, titled “What’s Beyond,” invited the public to reflect on ideas of regeneration, ambiguity, and the open-ended process of healing, all the while questioning if that journey ever truly ends. Over time, the Dawar Arts Festival has earned a reputation for tackling pressing social issues, such as mental health, migration, gender, and identity, through participatory theatre and artistic expression. The festival invites audiences to linger with discomfort, embrace silence, and explore alternative ways of connecting, both with others and with their personal narratives. The festival was founded by Dawar Arts, an independent cultural organization that harnesses the power of art and community-based programs to foster healing and social transformation. By addressing the psychological and social effects of conflict, displacement, and poverty, Dawar Arts brings together a multidisciplinary team of artists, educators, health workers, and…
