Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), the longest-running annual festival of Arab arts and culture in the UK, returns for its 24th year this July, and has just announced more events for this year’s edition.
This year’s festival will highlight how Arab artists, from within the region and across the diaspora, engage with the deep and ever-shifting concept of belonging.
Across ten days, a bold and diverse programme will trace the emotional and political dimensions of home: from the comfort of closeness to the ache of distance, and the possibilities in exploring new ground.
Through sound, performance, visual art, and personal narratives, LAAF 2026 invites audiences to reflect on the places that shape us, and on how families, social networks, and communities continue to build foundations of cultural connection and inclusion.
The festival launches on Friday 17 July with LAAF favourites, the Al-Awhadel Band, returning to Liverpool to perform in the iconic St George’s Hall Concert Room. Spotlighting the evocative sounds of the oud, the band is led by Yaser Awdhali, an artist and composer from Aden, Yemen.
Yaser began his artistic career in childhood, learning to play the oud at a young age, influenced by his father, the great artist Ahmed Omar Awdhali, a celebrated musician with a long and distinguished career across the Gulf states.
Now, Yaser himself has earned the title ‘Artist of the Diaspora’, promising a spectacular celebration of Yemeni music.
On Saturday, 18 July, Sudan’s eclectic and vibrant cuisine and literature will be explored at The Black-E.
The Sudanese Culinary Arts and Literature event explores the meaning of home through food, art, and storytelling, in collaboration with the London-based publisher, the Almas Art Foundation. Centred around the work of British-Sudanese food archivist and author of The Sudanese Kitchen, Omer Tijani, the event brings together recipes, oral histories, and cultural narratives that preserve and celebrate Sudan’s heritage.
Sudanese food will also be available for all attendees.
The Sudanese Kitchen began as a long-term documentation project and website led by Omer Al Tijani, and developed into a landmark cookbook and cultural archive that collects over 100 recipes and contextual essays, as well as personal and field photographs to present Sudan’s culinary diversity.
Family Short Film Screenings and Creative Puppetry Workshops
On Sunday 19 July, LAAF once again collaborate with At the Library to bring a family-friendly screening and workshop to The Plaza Cinema, Crosby.
‘A Journey Home’ is a screening of four short animated films, touching on the theme of home, and all told through the perspectives of young characters.
A creative workshop will follow the films.
The lineup begins with I am from Palestine (Palestine-USA, 2023), directed by Iman Zawahry and produced by Rifk Ebeid.
The short follows Saamidah, a young Palestinian-American girl, who anxiously starts her first day of school and finds her identity in question when faced with a world map that doesn’t include her homeland.
This is followed by OLIVIA (Algeria, 2024), directed by Shawki Boukef, which follows a woman uprooted from her olive land and forced into exile with her son. In an unfamiliar world, she struggles to belong while trying to protect him, until she is faced with the decision to return, leading her on a final journey.
The third film is BAHR (Egypt, 2025), directed by Belal Samra.
While grieving the loss of his wife, a father struggles with faith in a chance to reconnect with her; the journey is portrayed as death being a beginning rather than an end, a simple line separating two worlds.
The screening concludes with All Aboard (Lebanon-France, 2024), directed by Joe Azar, Sasha Grandet, Sami Haouas, Camille Lecour, Julie Marquet, Anaïs Mascherpa, and Christina Varlokost.
To follow his dream, Ray comes illegally aboard the Nucleus Express at the expense of Copper, a passenger who has his ticket for the trip.
Following the films, the ‘Map Without Borders!’ family creative workshop will explore roots, memory, and belonging through drawing, storytelling, mapping, and traditional Karagoz-inspired shadow puppetry. No art experience needed and everyone is welcome.
Ticket Availability Across Various Liverpool Venues
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival takes place across multiple city venues from 17 to 26 July 2026.
Tickets for all events as they are announced will be available here.
