Glasgow is to welcome the return of The Bethlehem Cultural Festival this weekend to celebrate Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean’s rich and diverse cultural scene.
The festival, launched digitally in December 2020, and 2021 saw the launch of a mixture of in-person and digital events.
This year’s events take place across the UK featuring both local and Palestinian performers with the Glasgow programme including spoken word, electronic music, short films and a celebration of the twinned city link between Glasgow and Bethlehem.
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Melissa Scott, Co-founder and Creative Director of The Bethlehem Cultural Festival, 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.”
Cairsti Russell, Glasgow Programmer of The Bethlehem Cultural Festival, said: “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.”
For more info and tickets, click here
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