Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025

Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor

Book now

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025

11-20 July 2025

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

LAAF - Save The Date
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
Book now

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival is the longest running celebration of arts from across the Arab region as well as the wider diaspora in the UK. They programme boldly and from a firm belief that performance, culture and creativity are the most powerful ways to express a shared humanity. The theme for 2025’s festival is ‘Nostalgia’. You can expect to see this poignant provocation being explored through theatre, storytelling, music, art and food over the course of a packed nine day festival.

Within the Arab world and wider diaspora Nostalgia represents more than just a sentimental pull. It’s a cultural need to preserve and reclaim identity. Something which becomes an anchor in a world which is constantly shifting. It encourages continuity and a stability which can be found outside of material things.

Liverpool prides itself on its centuries old multicultural heritage. Celebrating the melting pot of influences brought into the culture of a place through movement of people. A rich society is one that makes space to honour different cultures in a unified way. LAAF definitely proves this to be true by bringing in big name acts from across the world as well as giving a platform to those based in the city.

Although the full line up is yet to be announced we’re already buzzing to see Palestinian / American violinist Akrma Abdulfattah featuring as part of it. He’ll be bringing his unique blend of musical influences to the Philharmonic Music Room.

An eagerly anticipated day in each festival is the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival Family Day. Taking place on the last Sunday of the festival inside Sefton Park’s Palm House, the event is totally free and open to all ages. There will be live music and performance throughout as well as stalls with sumptuous middle eastern food, storytelling, dance workshops, calligraphy and more. It’s a glorious way to immerse the whole family in the best of Arab culture.

Where to go near Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025

Penistone Hill Country Park
Bradford
Park
Penistone Hill Country Park

As part of Bradford 2025’s UK City of Culture programme, Penistone Hill plays host to outdoor events that celebrate the enduring connection between landscape, identity and creativity.

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds. Exhibitions are open for all to view. Encounter sculpture on your daily walk, or way to work or school.
Leeds
Event venue
Threshold Leeds

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds.

The Engine Room Notice Board
Southport
Event venue
The Engine Room

The Engine Room is a creative community hub in Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade, offering co-working space, cultural events and collaborative opportunities for artists, freelancers and educators.

Leeds
Gallery
The Mill Gallery

The Mill Gallery is an artist-run space in Leeds, supporting emerging artists to develop and showcase their work authentically.

Church congregation at St George's Church in Leeds
Leeds
Place of worship
St George’s Church

St George’s is a lively city centre church in Leeds with three services every Sunday and a midweek programme that includes groups, courses and events. We’re here to help people

Picante
Liverpool
Restaurant
Picante

Picante is a sun-soaked Mexican restaurant at the trailblazing Cains Brewery Village in Liverpool.

Miru Mill
Manchester
Event venue
Miru Mill

Miru Mill is an event space and micro-factory based at Churchgate Mill in Stockport.

Spa
iglu sauna

An authentic and affordable sauna and cold plunge experience in Hebden Bridge, in a beautiful outdoor setting amongst the trees.

Salford
Restaurant
Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar

Kallos is a Greek restaurant and wine bar in Salford, serving up exquisite dishes throughout the day and evening.

What's on: Festivals

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Until
CinemaManchester
Wes World at HOME

Take a trip back into the world of Wes Anderson this May as HOME present a series of the acclaimed auteur’s most beloved films alongside The Phoenician Scheme.

From £7.95
Four young female dancers in folk costumes, one looking at the camera
ActivityCathedral Quarter
Góbéfest

Góbéfest, Manchester’s original international urban folk music and dance festival, is back with a killer line up and the best of Central Europe.

Free entry
The Herds, The Walk Productions
FestivalsManchester
MIF25: THE HERDS

Manchester International Festival 2025 kicks off with an awe-inspiring outdoor spectacle as THE HERDS take to the streets of Manchester, Rochdale, and Wigan.

Free entry
FestivalsCity Centre
MIF25: Festival Square

Festival Square is the beating heart of Manchester International Festival 2025, returning to its riverside location once again.

Free entry

Culture Guides

BC Camplight Portrait
Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss (unless you’re paying attention).

Hannah Platt 'Playing Out', courtesy of Threshold, photograph by Jules Lister.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.

portrait of Lorsung in a dark shirt with dark hair and dark round glasses
Literature Events in the North

We've got laughs and we've got leftfield on the live literature radar this month. Something for everyone, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Classical Music in the North

Read our latest highlights from the live classical music offer in Manchester and the North, taking in a number of the region's most cherished orchestral forces and venues.