{"id":52203,"date":"2024-02-20T20:57:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=52203"},"modified":"2024-02-21T21:38:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:38:00","slug":"sikka-at-heart-how-to-undersell-your-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/sikka-at-heart-how-to-undersell-your-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikka at heart? How to undersell your festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 12th edition of the Sikka Art and Design Festival runs from 23 February to 3 March 2024. For the first time it’s being held at the Al Shindagha Historic Neighbourhood, centred on the museum \u2013 <\/strong><\/span>it’s been moved from its long-term site in the alleyways and houses of Al Fahidi, just down the road, to simplify access (there’s a Metro stop, a bus station, easier parking, and generally less traffic hassle) and to greatly increase the range and number of exhibit and event spaces (there are 13 houses for exhibitions and workshops). It’s all part of Dubai Culture’s policy of sprucing up the festival and making it generally more Official while bringing footfall and attention to Al Shindagha. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, there will be a lot going on at Sikka \u2013 lots of murals and outdoor installations, lots of art and photography exhibitions, live performances and film screenings, poetry evenings and workshops, \u201chomegrown F&B concepts\u201d, and <\/span>a programme of panel talks by our <\/a>friends<\/a> at Karama Arts Club<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you\u2019d like to find out exactly what\u2019s happening, and when, and where, you might be disappointed. You\u2019d think the website at sikkartandesign.com <\/a>would be a good first stop; nope \u2013 it seems to be inactive. There\u2019s no Twitter\/X or Facebook presence with the promised @sikkaplatform account. And Sikka\u2019s Instagram<\/a> is enthusiastic and quite busy, but it\u2019s skimpy in terms of hard information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That leaves the Dubai Culture page for the Sikka festival.<\/a> It looks good, and seems to have all the links you might need to plan your visit. But in fact it\u2019s full of lorem ipsums and placeholder images, which is frankly a bit shoddy. If you persevere with clicks on \u2018Your Guide to Sikka 24\u2019 you will get to a page from where you might think you can download the full programme<\/a> \u2026 but no. You can in fact download a PDF for day one<\/a> but the other links are all dead or barely sentient (try the ‘Sikka Houses’ page, but prepare to be disappointed quite quickly). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t bother clicking on \u2018Download the full programme here\u2019, or \u2018Register\u2019, or \u2018Download your Sikka map here\u2019; they don\u2019t 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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several events are capacity-limited, though, so registration will definitely be required for those. Perhaps there\u2019s an onsite facility for personal visitors. As it happens, preregistration is<\/em> available … but only via this link<\/a>, which arrived in a emailer. And (a) it seems to refer only to day one again; and (b) it says nothing about how to sign up for workshops and the like; so (c) what exactly is it for then, apart from harvesting email addresses and phone numbers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of information and the duff website are really disappointing. They suggest a basic lack of customer care that (probably, hopefully) won’t be echoed at the actual festival. Sikka has always had a cool, open-access, let\u2019s-do-it-here vibe, and even if that’s being organised away the festival is bound to be a fun visit. We recommend perseverance. Still, it would be so much better if we knew some more about the timed events, or who’s appearing on the stage and when, and which workshops need prebooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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). And hopefully they’ll sort out that website before you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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