Quoz Arts Fest, the region’s highly anticipated arts and culture festival, is returning to Dubai’s Al Quoz Creative Zone for its 11th edition from January 27-28.

Supported by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) as Strategic Partner, the festival will bring together art, live music acts from the region, cultural activations, and food in a single weekend.

It will feature more than 20 live performances, 80 artists, 200 activations, and 50 food concepts, from morning until midnight.

Quoz Arts Fest 2024 invites visitors to take a fresh look at how they experience their weekends, with diverse and dynamic activities for visitors of all ages at all hours of the day.

This year’s notable festival highlight, Echoes of Nature by London-based Japanese artist Yuri Suzuki, will be on show both days at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue’s multidisciplinary exhibitions and events space.

The interactive, ambient sound installation mimics nature, connecting people and the environment, via an eclectic arrangement of pipes and horns. To deepen this connection, visitors are even encouraged to take home elements of the work.

Other artistic activations accessible during the entire festival include a larger-than-life mural, ‘Collection of Moments’, produced by French-Tunisian graffiti artist eL Seed, The Disappearing Art Show by Gulf Photo Plus highlighting works by emerging artists, collectives, and galleries while engendering sustainable collecting practices.

Festival favourites Reel Palestine Souk and KAVE’s Market of Misfits provide the opportunity for all-day browsing of wares at the curated markets.

Amidst the numerous regional talents taking the stage at Quoz Arts Fest 2024 to perform live, is standout artist, The Synaptik. The Palestinian-Jordanian rapper, at the forefront of a popular wave of Arabic rap and trap, uses his infectious beats and unique song-writing style to effortlessly merge singing and rapping to explore issues such as migration and social inequality.

Public Installations

• ‘Every Color is a Shade of Black’ by Hamra Abbas and curated by Lawrie Shabibi, exploring colour in the context of social concepts such as identity, faith, and more
• ‘Red Flags’ by Anahita Razmi and courtesy of Carbon 12, a series of banners and flags in eye-catching variations of coloured gradients across multiple sites, prompting curiosity amongst visitors
• Muhannad Shono’s ‘A Forgotten Place’ which, inspired by indigenous plants largely ignored yet persistently thriving around Al Quoz and the Avenue, utilises AC water condensate to irrigate a garden of feral grasses, flowers, bushes and trees.

Other highlights

Yoga session hosted by Shimis in the Yard, and a rejuvenating outdoor ride by Crank.

Gardens of Gaia by The Confidence Lab that promises a colourful, creative experience for children and families. Gardens of Gaia features trusted home-grown brands in creative education, performance arts, tabletop gaming, health and fitness, and high-quality culinary options.

thejamjar’s engaging artistic workshops and Original Mix DJs’ pop-up school for kids to showcase their talents.

Alserkal Avenue’s resident galleries will be open early for visitors to drop by and check out their eclectic exhibitions.

Live performances such as Moroccan-French singer Amina’s intimate folk and pop-infused tunes

Tanzanian-born performance artist Dipesh Pandya’s transformation of a car into a sonic sculpture via site-specific spoken word.

Quoz Encore will showcase the most promising homegrown emerging musicians of all ages, genres, and languages, Basma Choir’s mesmerising celebration of Arabic music and heritage will meld with Suzuki’s ambient sound installation, and Sima Dance Company will put on visually stunning performance in Concrete.

Quoz Arts Fest takes it up a notch with live performances by crowd favourites such as remixed South Asian DJ sets and custom visuals by UAE-based Stick No Bills

Sudanese fusion artists MarSimba’s mix of Sudanese lingo and African beats

Millennial artist Usha Jey’s hybrid dance showcase of hip-hop and Bharatanatyam.

Big Hass, a Dubai-based hip-hop DJ will be helming the evening’s live entertainment as resident MC and DJ.

Culinary Options

• At Alserkal Avenue, visitors can look forward to mouth-watering culinary options from some of UAE’s most popular independent dining concepts available throughout the festival.
• Mattar’s melt-in-your-mouth handcrafted smoked meats
• Kooya’s unique take on classic Filipino dishes
• Pinch’s unforgettable Paella
• Monno’s hearty Italian pizzas
• Tacos Los Hermanos’ authentic Mexican culinary offerings

Retail

• Lady Mauve’s unique and edgy jewellery pieces
• Scarfy’s wearable art made of recycled plastic bottles
• Caped Coast’s versatile African print capes, kaftans & kimonos
• My Backyard Chronicles’ timeless toys
• Fix Chocolatier’s quirky chocolate bars
• El Botik’s trendy clothes in collaboration with artists and brands from around the world – TradeArabia News Service