Quoz Arts Festival

Quoz Arts Fest returns to Alserkal Avenue on 24 and 25 January with a mix of experimental art installations, live music, exhibitions, “food experiences”, and “encounters designed for all ages”. Basmah El Bittar, Director of Alserkal Avenue, reckons the 2026 Quoz Fest highlights the depth of regional talent – “artists whose work reflects the pulse, perspective and creative energy of the region … local artisans whose craft and culinary expressions shape the cultural fabric of the festival …”

There’s no theme as such, but the press release says “this edition foregrounds practices that invite movement, collective listening, and new modes of engaging with art in public spaces, transforming the neighbourhood into a space for sound, gesture, and shared experience”. Which could cover just about any festival with a performance and visual art component, but hey …

Music

This year’s music programme is led by the Palestinian hip-hop collective DAM and Gayathri Krishnan on Saturdays, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan (indie-Arabic royalty) plus TootArd (below) on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, Stage 2.0 offers a dedicated platform for the emerging and less well known, a “space for experimentation, exchange, and new collaborations” as the blurb has it.

The Fridge Warehouse is also running two days of evening shows – Serena & The Velvet Chords and Calista Liaw on Saturday, Imelda Gabs and Hosny on Sunday – with Open Mic slots between sets for new talent to showcase their work (if you’re interested there are still some slots available, we hear).

Art

From the Lips to the Moon (below) is a “collaborative sonic journey” created for the festival by Pouya Ehsaei and Tara Fatehi – an immersive soundscape shaped by voice, gesture, and improvisation. And Jean-Baptiste André will present Floe, a nomadic project bringing together a visual installation designed by Vincent Lamouroux that sets as a stage for a choreographed performance.

The biggie is Numen/For Use’s TAPE project at Concrete (top). This is a series of site-specific cocoon-like structures shaped through self-forming processes inspired by patterns found in nature – each installation begins as a set of linear trajectories stretched across the space, before being diagonally wrapped in layers of elastic tape. Says the PR: “these installations dissolve the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, turning viewers into participants and space into a shared organism …” This is the project’s first time in Dubai, but it has been presented successfully in more than 10 cities around the world.

Community et al

Jossa at Warehouse 45 has activity zones with fun soft structures for kids, Mawaheb has a multimedia presentation of works by adults of determination, and the Reel Palestine souk returns with 50+ vendors selling crafts and food rooted in Palestinian heritage. And there will be many curated pop-ups, warehouse takeovers, and “neighbourhood culinary concepts” across the lanes.

Extras

Alongside the ‘official’ programme (which you get in return for your entrance fee of AED 100 per day – no, theren’t any discount if you buy a two-day pass) many of the Avenue’s regular venues are putting on shows of their own (with separate, and therefore additional, ticketing). They include Cinema Akil with Reel Palestine screenings starting this weekend, and the Junction is running three fringe-ish shows (Hold on to your Butts, La Lezione di Teatro | The Acting Class and Fly, You Fools!) perhaps as a precursor to the fully-fledged fringe festival it plans to bring to Al Quoz later this year.