Sikka Art and Design Festival 2024

The 12th edition of Sikka runs from 23 February to 3 March 2024 at the Al Shindagha Historic Neighbourhood (it’s moved from Al Fahidi to simplify access and increase the range and number of exhibits and event spaces – all part of sprucing up the festival and making it generally more Official). There’s a lot going on – lots of murals and outdoor installations, lots of art and photography exhibitions, live performances, film screenings, poetry evenings, workshops, “homegrown F&B concepts”, and a programme of panel talks by our friends at Karama Arts Club.

But if you’d like to find out exactly what’s happening when and where, don’t bother with the website at sikkartandesign.com – it seems to be inactive. There’s no Twitter/X or Facebook presence with the promised @sikkaplatform account. And Sikka’s Instagram is enthusiastic and busy but skimpy in terms of hard information.

That leaves the Dubai Culture page for the Sikka festival. It looks good but in fact it’s full of lorem ipsums and placeholder images, which is frankly a bit shoddy. If you persevere with clicks on ‘Your Guide to Sikka 24’ you will get to a page from where you might think you can download the full programme … but no. You can in fact download a PDF for day one but the other links are all dead or barely sentient (try the ‘Sikka Houses’ page, but prepare to be disappointed quite quickly). Don’t bother clicking on ‘Download the full programme here’, or ‘Register’, or ‘Download your Sikka map here’; they don’t go anywhere. (And the map lower down the page shows the old Al Fahidi location by default, but at least you can drag it over to Al Shindagha.)

Several events are capacity-limited, though, so registration will definitely be required for those. Since preregistration doesn’t seem to be available, perhaps there’s an onsite facility for personal visitors.

The lack of information and the duff website are really disappointing. Sikka has always had a cool, open-access, let’s-do-it-here vibe, and even if that’s being organised away the festival is bound to be a fun visit. Still, it would be better if we knew some more about the timed events or those that do need prebooking.

The festival is free to enter. It’s open from 4pm and closes at midnight on weekends, 11pm weekdays. Access is best via Metro (the Al Ghubaiba stop) or cab (book online with code SIKKA50 to get your Hala Taxi trip at half price).