On ‘Welcome To The Fringe Palestine’ Plans for 2027

“Welcome To The Fringe Palestine” — a festival celebrating Palestinian art, culture and freedom —  is preparing for the 2027 Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

As they raise funds and sort through applications, festival co-organizer Sara Shaarawi took a moment to answer questions about the festival’s origins, how it changed last year, and their plans for 2027.

Can you tell us a bit about how Fringe Palestine came about back in 2015, how it changed in 2025, and how your approach changes (or doesn’t change) for 2027? 

Sara Shaarawi: Welcome to the Fringe Palestine was founded by the playwright David Greig, he launched a crowdfunder in 2014 after the Israeli strikes on Gaza, there a lot of discourse around BDS at the time but he felt that what he wanted to see was more Palestinian participation at the Fringe since it was almost non-existent at the time. The project received a lot of support from organizations and individuals, and in the end 10 Palestinian shows were brought over and they performed for one day at Forest Fringe at Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Leith.

In 2025, David Greig and Farah Saleh (one of the artists who participated in 2015 who is now based in Edinburgh) approached a group of artists to remount the festival ten years later. There was a real urgency to the project as the genocide in Gaza was ongoing. This was really a reaction to the lack of response of the theatre establishment in the UK, but also to the censorship, arrests, attacks that our Palestinian colleagues were facing across the board. It felt extremely urgent that Palestinian voices were platformed and heard as the Israeli onslaught against Palestinian life intensified. We organized it collectively and voluntarily, through crowdfunding and an open call, this attracted a huge number of small arts organizations, artists, organizers and people who generally wanted to help out. This included Independent Arts Projects, a small Edinburgh arts organization, who redirected resources into the project and are now the producers of the festival. We brought over 20 shows, which were performed over 4 days in Portobello Town Hall but some artists also had extra performances in Glasgow and London.

For 2027, we are keen to retain this collective support and communal aspect of the festival. Our aim is to support Palestinian artists at the fringe and make sure they have access to everything that’s great about the festival while alleviating the usual stressors of bringing a show to Edinburgh. The main change for next year is that we want to deliver an eight-day festival over two weeks, with some repeat performances, giving more people a chance to see the shows.

I’ve read some of the highlights of Fringe Palestine 2025 in the impact report; were there others that stood out to you, including in how this impacted (or continues to impact) the artists who took part?

SS: There were so many.

A highlight for me was how the program was in conversation with itself. One could watch a performance lecture about Palestine’s geography and its colonial “Areas” and then see a very personal monodrama which references an “Area” and as someone that has never been to Palestine, that reference clicks into place, suddenly something abstract becomes real without ever leaving the room. The context was one another’s work was built collectively just by engaging with each piece.

Another highlight was seeing the artists encounter each other’s work for the first time and the emotions it brought up. It became clear to us how the occupation purposefully divides Palestinians not just geographically but also culturally, so to bring everyone in a room together felt really powerful, watching as people’s expressions connected with one another.

In Glasgow, we watched Bruno Cruz play a set for a street festival, and the street went from being empty to people coming out of their houses because of how good the music was.

In terms of impact, we continue to keep in touch with everyone, and help where we can. We’ve had artists come back to Scotland, Amal Kaawash was programmed in Celtic Connections, Nur Garabli came back for a short residency at the Work Room in Glasgow, Amir Sabra and Noor Abuarafeh were subsequently programmed in PuSH Festival in Canada, Mohammed Moussa organized his first UK book tour, and Fadi Murad won the Meadow Award at Summerhall which allowed him to come back to Edinburgh in 2026, to do a full fringe run.

Some have called their hosts, their “Scottish family.” One host shared that they’ll never forget the artist they hosted singing nursery rhymes to their little nephew. We also had a local poet wrote a poem because she attended a private rehearsal of one of the shows, she was the neighbor of one of the hosts and they were going to miss the show so the artists gave them a private concert in their living room, and many have said that they really felt cared while they were with us, and that’s really important for us, the “welcome” is really at the core of this project.

You emphasize that this is a place to celebrate Palestinian voices without censorship. I’d guess this means not just direct governmental involvement but also the pressures of framing Palestinian works for commercial success? 

SS: Absolutely, we want audiences to meet the work on its own terms. In trying to put on Palestinian work ourselves, we are often met with anxiety, requests around framing, etc. In response we’re creating a space where Palestinian artists are not required to do or be anything other than themselves, and there’s no pressure to “represent” or do anything other than share their artistic practice, we’re not looking for answers, we want to create shared space, which what theatre in its essential form.

This approach also means we get to program work in all its richness, diversity and complexity, and that’s just more exciting to do. This project is artist-led and I think it really impacts how we shape the program and take on curatorial responsibility.

You write that “Donations will allow us to bring Palestinian artists to Edinburgh to be seen and heard by audiences in Scotland.” Can you tell us anything about the Palestinian artists you might be able to bring? 

SS: Not yet! We have an open call for artists live at the moment, and that’s where the bulk of programming comes from. We make sure not to rely on our own networks and circles, and that the door is open for any artist who would like to connect with us.

The only thing we can say is that we will be programming a variety of performances, we’re interested in everything from theatre to stand up comedy to music to dance and contemporary performance, it can be a finished work or a work in progress. There are lots of considerations beyond the work itself such as gender, experience, and where the artist is based, it’s important for us that the program is balanced and offers diversity of themes, forms, thoughts, experiences.

You’re still open to applications, yes? Do you have a sense of how many you might be able to accept? Or what fundraising goal translates into how many artists?

SS: We’re still open yes, deadline is 9 December. We don’t know how many we are able to accept, last year we had decided 16 artists and ended up bringing about 35 artists in total. What we would like to do is have a main program that repeats over the eight days, that’s probably three shows, with one-off performances throughout the week such as music, comedy, poetry, etc. These are easy to program in other spaces and festivals as well which we hope to do again in 2027.

Because we want to do eight days rather than four, then our costs increases significantly, we’re looking at 18 -20 artists this year, and it’ll probably be 9 -10 shows rather than 20. At least that’s the plan. The more money we fundraise, the more we’re able to do/offer.

I saw in your impact report that although Gazan artists were not able to attend in 2025, you did involve them online. I imagine Palestinian artists in Gaza welcome to apply to participate — as they do, what should they keep in mind?

SS: We are really keen to see applications from Gazan artists, but of course the war and visa regimes will determine how possible it is to bring Gazan artists to Edinburgh.  We had two artists from Gaza in the 2025 edition. For the playwright Rafat Al Aydi, we organized a reading of his play which was already translated into English, we worked with his friend and collaborator, Muriel Besemer, in the Netherlands. We had an open rehearsal with a local director and actors which was also live streamed, then had the reading at the festival which was followed by a Q&A with Rafat and Muriel.

We also programmed the rapper LAFI who created a film of his music videos, which were all shot in Gaza, the film went backwards so we saw his latest video down to his first, and with it we watch Gaza go from ruins to a city.

Both events were extremely powerful and everyone who attended were deeply affected, suddenly Gaza went from being this far away place (that we care about but is still far) to with us in the room. It highlighted the extent to which distance and dehumanization are tools under which genocide is perpetrated.

The main thing to keep in mind is that even in situations where we are not able to bring an artist over in person, we want to include their art. We are constantly talking to colleagues about routes out of Gaza, but the UK is particularly difficult to get to and there is no clear pathway. But it’s extremely important for us that Gaza is present in our program, so we will do whatever we can to make sure they are there with us, and we are open to different ways of doing this.

Also:

Donate now or apply to be part of the 2027 festival.