Afghanaid's Cultural Festival

Come along to our celebration of Afghanistan's rich and vibrant culture on Sunday, 9th July from 12pm at The Hackney Social!

After the roaring success of our first ever (and sold out!) Cultural Festival last August, we're thrilled to announce that we're back for a second helping. Featuring another fantastic line up of music, poetry and dance performances, as well as workshops by Afghan creatives, stalls with food, books and charity merchandise, the day will get your feet moving, stomachs rumbling, brain whirring and creative juices flowing all whilst showing your support for the people in Afghanistan.

Everyone is welcome at Afghanaid's Cultural Festival - whether you want to learn more about Afghanistan, celebrate your culture, or find out more about Afghanaid, we'd love to have you join us.

Secure your place at the festival - limited tickets available!

Meet the contributors

This year Elaha Soroor will return to showcase the richness of Afghan culture through music! Elaha Soroor is a London-based musician, vocalist, composer, and designer originally from Afghanistan, who first rose to fame through the reality TV show Afghan Star in 2008. Her latest release Songs Of Our Mothers is a collaborative album with the award-winning collective band Kefaya. The album is an organic blend of traditional folk songs and contemporary sounds, and a joyous statement of resilience and emancipation, embodying the complexities and nuances of society across continents.

Hadisa Hussain Afzaly has enamoured us with her poetry at both our online panel 'Conversations with Afghanaid: The Poetry of Afghanistan' and Good Chance's kite festival 'Fly With Me' last summer, so we are so pleased to announce her as a workshop facilitator and performer at this year's festival. She frequently shares her work to inspire empathy for families affected by conflict and loss, and is also often inspired by notions of confidence and empowerment in her writing. 

Poet Meral Alizada is a published author and TedX speaker, who also joined us for an online event last year. Meral's poetry book 'Rumi's daughter' includes a plethora of inspiring verses on a range of subjects such as childhood, faith and self-love, and she has a passion for highlighting and celebrating the cultural traditions of Afghanistan to a wider, international audience, so we are excited to be inspired by her words as both a workshop host and performer. 

Keep your eyes peeled for further announcements about all of our incredible lineup. Follow us on our social media to catch all the announcements as they drop.

Timings

12:00pm - Doors open

12:30pm - First workshops start

14:00pm - First performances start

18:00pm - Event ends

Tickets

For women across Afghanistan, access to public life is shrinking, meaning the avenues through which they can earn an income and access education are more and more limited. As a result, many overstretched households often rely on a single breadwinner and are forced into extreme debt just to make ends meet.

At Afghanaid, women-led solutions remain at the core of what we do. This means that any contribution you make in exchange for your entry to Afghanaid's Cultural Festival not only support Afghan women in tackling family debt and alleviating poverty, but will help embolden a whole new generation of women to become agents of change.

There are limited tickets for this event - last year we completely sold out - so act fast!

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Select what you'd like to pay for your ticket using the options below. If you'd like to increase your contribution, you can do so by adding a donation at checkout. 

£53 ticket option: pay £53 and we could provide a women with the seeds and tools she needs to establish a home garden to grow nutritious food for her family and earn an income.

£39 ticket option: pay £39 and you could help a woman receive the training and equipment she needs to properly care for her sheep, goats or cows so that they produce more.

£21 ticket option: pay £21 and you could cover the costs of an emergency food parcel to feed a woman and her family for a week.

£12.50 ticket option: pay £12.50 and your support could provide a woman with the required stationary and training booklets for her to learn and improve her literacy and numeracy skills.

£5 ticket option: pay £5 and you could help a women start to grow saplings in her garden, helping her to become involved in the restoration of local ecosystems, provide food for her family, and earn an income.