Flying Carpet Festival 2024 Announces Dates And Lineup

The Flying Carpet Festival has announced its return for 2024, bringing together an extraordinary lineup of artists, musicians, and performers from around the globe. The festival will take place from September 20th to September 30th, 2024, in cities such as Mardin, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, and Midyat, transforming the Turkish-Syrian border into a vibrant hub of cultural exchange and artistic expression for children and families from refugee and underserved communities.

Now in its 6th year, the Flying Carpet Festival is the first mobile festival for children living in difficult places and conflict zones. The festival was created in 2018 by Sahba Aminikia, a San Francisco-based Iranian American music composer and TED Fellow, in collaboration with Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi (Art Anywhere Association) or Sirkhane Social Circus School. Co-founded in 2012 by Pınar Demiral and Serdal Adam, this NGO is the first social circus school in Türkiye and a cultural organization based in Mardin, near the Turkish-Syrian border, where 3.6 million refugees, half of whom are children, are resettled.

The festival annually brings 30-35 artists, musicians, dancers, acrobats, and storytellers to the Turkish-Syrian border as part of an artist residency. It engages them in creating a cohesive artistic storytelling experience decorated with music, dance, circus arts, and visual projections for children of Syrian, Turkish, and Kurdish origin. The festival fosters collaborations between artists-in-residence, local artists, and young Syrian refugee artists.

Since its inception, the Flying Carpet Festival has reached out to 24,000 children through 54 live performances and 300 workshops and has hosted 129 artists. It has been featured in notable publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Associated Press, KALW, Medium, I Care If You Listen, and Kulturaustausch.

In previous years, the festival has been sponsored by the United States Embassy in Adana, BMZ, MEROPS Foundation, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Istanbul. This year, the festival is made possible entirely by private funds and the generosity of individual donors.

The 2024 artist lineup includes 38 artists from 16 countries and is as below:

- Kyle Hovatter (Composer, Pianist - US)

- Hans Blichert (Bassist - Canada)

- Lydia Umlauf (Violinist - US)

- Ibrahim Basil El Attar (Oud Player - Palestine)

- Kimiya Zakeriyan (Setar Player - Iran)

- Bahman Ghobadi (Composer, Oud Player - Iran)

- Aaron Kierbel (Drummer - US)

- Avanaz Hassani (Violinist - Iran/Austria)

- Members of ShoutHouse: Will Healy (Pianist), Spiritchild (Vocalist, Hip-hop Artist), Quilan Arnold (Choreographer) (US)

- Vanessa Kourtesi (Vocalist - Greece)

- Gaelan Kameran Othman (Clarinetist - Iraq)

- Nicole Maria Hoffschneider (Dancer - US)

- Pyròvaghi (Maria Luisa Nardelli, Nicola Chiappini) (Fire Artists - Italy)

- Hanna Nikalayeva (Makeup Artist - Belarus)

- Polina Rusakovich (Makeup Artist - Belarus)

- Duo Astrall: Hélène Houdart (Puppeteer, Clown), Alexandre Seim (Circus Artist) (Canada)

- Harshal Vyas (Dancer, Choreographer - India)

- Anna Hachani (Nush) (Mural Artist - France)

- Christopher Rainbow (Visual Artist - UK)

- Hojjat Zeinali (Puppeteer - Iran)

- Sina Opalka (Photographer - Germany)

- Arya Ghavamian (Filmmaker, Photographer - US/Iran)

 

Local Artists:

Ebuburak Toparli (Storyteller - Tükiye)

Yeser Vesek (Vocalist - Türkiye)

Ibrahim Albaddah (Pianist, Syria)

 

The production artist team includes:

- Zara Houshmand (Author - US)

- Seba Kourani (Theatre Director - Lebanon)

- Hamzah Hamadeh (Theatre Director - Lebanon)

- Nima Dehghani (Visual Projection Artist - Iran/US)

- Özgür Mert (Videographer - Turkey)

- Shayan Shariat (Stage Designer - Iran)

- Torfeh Ekhlasi (Puppet Designer - Iran)

- Kamelia Rashidi (Light Designer - Iran/France)

- John Sanborn (Video Artist - US)

 

For more information and updates, visit: https://www.flyingcarpetfestival.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.