Full line-up revealed for Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025 as festival brochure launches

The Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), the UK’s longest-running annual celebration of Arab arts and culture, has unveiled its full programme for 2025, alongside this year’s festival brochure, which is available in both English and Arabic.

Now in its 23rd year, the festival returns this July with a packed line-up of performances, screenings, workshops and exhibitions, all showcasing the richness and diversity of Arab creativity from across the region and its diaspora.

LAAF continues to celebrate the power of art to share stories, build connections and bring people together, all while championing Liverpool’s identity as an outward-looking, welcoming city with a vibrant global community.

Highlights for 2025 include:

Archiving Nostalgia
FACT will host a special film screening on 14 July, featuring two short films and a feature-length documentary from Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria. The programme explores nostalgia as both theme and archive, capturing powerful personal and collective memories. A panel discussion on Arab cinema archiving will follow the screening.

Hadi Badi Children’s Workshop
Hadi Badi co-founders Hend Badawy and Raneem Soliman return to lead an interactive storytelling session for children aged four to eight at Bluecoat on Sunday 13 July. The bilingual session will introduce Arabic children’s books exploring themes of memory and home, followed by a fun creative activity.

Founded in 2019 by three Egyptian women based across the UK, France and Egypt, Hadi Badi aims to make Arabic children’s literature accessible through engaging activities for young readers and support for adults working with children of Arab heritage.

Dounia Part 1 & 2 at Crosby Plaz
Families can enjoy a double bill of animated films at the Plaza Community Cinema on 13 July. Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo follows a six-year-old Syrian girl’s journey to a new life, while Dounia – The Great White North, a UK premiere, sees her settle in Canada and dream of reuniting with her father. The screening is in partnership with At The Library, a Sefton Libraries project.

Arabs Are Not Funny
The ever-popular comedy night returns to Liverpool on 12 July, bringing some of the UK’s funniest Arab comedians back to the stage at Rough Trade. Expect a night of laughs and sharp wit, in association with Arts Canteen. Ages 18 and over.

The Book of Sana’a
In partnership with Comma Press, LAAF invites audiences to discover the hidden stories of Yemen’s capital with a day of food, poetry and music at VideOdyssey on 19 July. The event includes a buffet lunch, readings by award-winning poet Hamdan Dammag and a look at Mohamed Thulaya’s intricate model of Sana’a’s historic cityscape.

The Legend of the Looms
Toxteth TV will host a screening and Q&A with poet and filmmaker Ali Al-Jamri on 17 July. His debut film blends poetry and ghost story, exploring ancestral ties between Lancashire’s weaving industry and Bahrain’s textile heritage.

Limbs of the Lunar Disc: Isthmus Ancient River
A new video work reflecting on ancestry, ecology and environmental change will be on display at the World Museum’s World Cultures Gallery throughout the festival. The exhibition imagines a journey down a river of time and looks at how humans and landscapes adapt over generations.

On 12 July, visual artist Sarah Al-Sarraj will expand on this project with a live performance lecture, Break the Clocks, exploring alternative concepts of space and time through science, theory and worldbuilding.

These new additions join an already packed line-up including the theatre double-bill Penguin and A Grain of Sand, violinist Akram Abdulfattah, Nour Bishouty in collaboration with Liverpool Biennial, events exploring Palestinian stories, Jordanian food and culture, architecture and heritage exhibitions, Tatreez embroidery workshops, and the much-loved Family Day at Sefton Park Palm House.

The 2025 festival theme is Nostalgia, explored through music, theatre, film, visual art, literature and spoken word.

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival runs from 11 to 20 July across venues city-wide. For tickets and the full programme visit arabartsfestival.com.

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