/ BEIRUT STREET FESTIVAL
Zico House is the organizer and initiator of the Beirut Street Festival, the first street festival in Lebanon and in the region. The Beirut Street Festival aims at presenting a selection of the best European, African, Asian, American, Arab and Lebanese street performances. It focuses on the collaboration between foreign and Lebanese artists for the creation of urban, site-specific performances.
Like many Mediterranean cities, Beirut was a city where people spend valuable time outdoors. Streets constituted a second home to them: a place to gather and meet, to act and to learn, a space of togetherness and ritualized performances. For a long time, Beirut was well-known for its diverse cultural manifestations in the street. Unfortunately, and due to the sedentary aspect of the modern lifestyle in urban environments, these events became less present in the local festivity agenda.
Beirut Street Festival proposes to incite and restore this cultural aspect through participatory street theatre as well as all kind of street disciplines, in an attempt to revive the streets and their dynamics.
Objectives of Beirut Street Festival
- Present performances especially designed for open-air spaces
- Organize high-quality interventions easily accessible to all kinds of spectators
- Expose the Lebanese audience to contemporary European and other kinds of foreign artistic performances
- Participate in the development of the Lebanese art scene by encouraging street performances as a form of cultural production
- Create, for a certain period of time, an unconventional atmosphere in the streets
Specificity of the event
- Its variety: different art forms are presented, such as theatre, dance, performance, conference, workshops, puppets, etc…
- Its selection: all the contemporary presentations are specially produced for outdoor spaces in an urban setting.
- Its locations: the festival takes place in different streets of the city. For example, the festival organized events in Martyrs’ square, Al Maarad street, al Azarieh bldg., Roman baths, Ramlet-el Baida, Place de l’Etoile, Sassine Square, Hamra, Corniche, Sanayeh, Foch-Allenby, Gemayzé, Barbir, Mar Elias, Sanayeh, Verdun, Monot street, etc…
