Qatar Foundation’s D’reesha Performing Arts Festival has emerged as a space for cultural communication between people.
This year’s edition of the festival taking place during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 allows visitors to Qatar from different cultural backgrounds to explore Qatari heritage and culture.
“We have so many projects around Education City and lately we have D’reesha Performing Arts Festival,” said Community Arts Lead at QF, Ameera Al Aji.
This year, the festival is being held under the theme “Travel and Adventure”, and is inspired by the explorer Ibn Battuta. It showcases a variety of performances in Arabic and English, from storytelling, music, and poetry to visual arts and theatre until Saturday.
“The perfect and the good thing about performing art is that it is a visual language and it brings everyone together in a very beautiful way. The theme of this year’s festival is a good sample to showcase what we have within our Arab and Muslim world,” Al Aji told The Peninsula, on the sidelines of the discussion, ‘Cultivating Arab Heritage and Culture during the first World Cup in the region.’
The performances during the D’reesha Performing Arts Festival include Ibn Battuta, which features regional artists, QF students, and members of the community; Rumi: The Musical; and Ajyal Tunes. The festival will also have cultural performances from Qatar and other nations such as Morocco, Senegal, Turkiye and Greece.
Al Aji also hinted at taking activities of D’reesha Performing Arts Festival to an international level in the future.
“We have so many projects to go with Performing Arts Festival and take it beyond an annual event. We will have monthly activities and programmes as well as school visits to bridge gaps in culture. We will hopefully take the programmes to an international level,” she said. STEM shows and workshops also take place during the festival as part of D’reesha of Invention, which is being sponsored by ConocoPhillips Qatar, showcasing scientists, scholars, and researchers from the Arab world. A key element of QF community development focus is a commitment to promoting, preserving, celebrating, and solidifying the unique identity and spirit of Qatar and the Arab world.
Al Aji said that in line with QF’s commitment the Education City is home to several unique attractions, including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; Seeroo fi al ardh - the final artwork of Maqbool Fida Husain highlighting the progress of humanity on land, in air and sea, and their inclination to utilise the surrounding resources to achieve their goals and Al Shaqab – a global equine centre passionately committed to preserving Qatar’s heritage by promoting the Arabian horse and setting the highest standards in horse welfare, breeding, equine education and research.
