A festival celebrating the links between Glasgow and Bethlehem is set to take place this weekend with a top lineup of local and Palestinian performers. The Bethlehem Cultural Festival will include spoken word, electronic music, and short films.
First launched digitally in December 2020, with 2021 seeing a mixture of in-person and digital events, the festival for 2022 will kick off with an evening of spoken word showcasing the creativity of Palestinian and Glaswegian poets including Glasgow-based Palestinian poet and translator Iyad Hayatleh; performance poet and writer Victoria McNulty; and British Palestinian spoken word artist and published poet Tasneim Zyada.
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While on Saturday December 3 from 5pm, a free to enter event will include a synchronised lighting of Christmas Trees in both Nativity Square in Bethlehem and Glasgow Cathedral, a Dabke performance by a group of young dancers from Aida refugee camp and a live stream performance from Nativity Square featuring Yacoub Shaheen, a past winner of Arab Idol.
Then on the evening of Saturday December 3 from 8 pm - 1 am, music lovers are invited to join a night of electronic music celebrating the diverse music scene in Palestine and the wider surrounding region at Glasgow’s Civic House with ground-breaking Haifa-based duo Zenobia, London-based artist Mo'min Swaitat, and Edinburgh-based DJ Hiba all set to perform.
This is an 18+ event, tickets start at £12.00 and tickets are available from the festival website.
Rounding off the weekend’s programme is an afternoon of Palestinian short films at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Sunday December 4. Running from 12pm - 2pm the screenings have been co-curated by Sarah Agha (actress, writer and founder of the Arab Film Club) and Wisam Al Jafari (the award-winning filmmaker from Bethlehem).
Aimed at people aged 16 and above, tickets are priced from £7.50 and available from the festival website.
Co-founder and creative director, Melissa Scott, said: "As much of the world's thoughts turn to Christmas, the Bethlehem Cultural Festival team is bringing a diverse range of cultural events from Palestine.
"We are building on the rich cultural heritage that this region has always had throughout the centuries, and try to go some way to remind the world of the positive cultural work being done on the ground every day. We find ways to demonstrate what connects us in an age when we are increasingly being told what divides us.”
Glasgow Programmer, Cairsti Russell, added: “For most people ‘Bethlehem’ means Christmas. But many don’t know that Bethlehem and Glasgow are twinned cities. The festival aims to shine a light on the vast range of culture coming from Palestine at the same time as celebrating and developing further the twinned city relationship. Each event in Glasgow features artists and performers based in both Glasgow and Palestine, to showcase an amazing array of talent but also in the hope of building further collaboration.
"This year we are very excited about the eclectic programme we have for Glasgow. We will be welcoming the Palestinian duo Zenobia, who are coming all the way from Haifa to play at our night of electronic music. Zenobia are considered the pioneers of Palestinian electronic music, so we are thrilled that their first gig in Scotland will be for the festival.”
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