As Palestinians are killed while queuing for food, as cemeteries overflow, as aid workers and journalists vanish beneath rubble... the genocide in Gaza shows no sign of easing. How can we partake in art without acknowledging this reality? This August, Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine offers an answer. A small act of solidarity. A refusal to look away.

Organised by a collective of Scotland-based artists, producers and writers with deep connections to Palestine and the wider Middle East, this four-day mini-festival brings Palestinian artist voices to the heart of the Fringe, supported by Independent Arts Projects and Workers Theatre Co-operative. Many of the organisers, including Sara Shaarawi, Henry Bell, Catrin Evans, Leonor Estrada, Ben Harrison, David Greig and Farah Saleh, have spent years working closely with artists and communities in Palestine.

Running over four days at Portobello Town Hall, the programme for Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine features a series of uncensored theatre, music, poetry, dance, comedy, storytelling and food. Highlights include My Death Is Not a Song, a poetry performance by Mohammed Moussa, founder of the Gaza Poets Society, and Harvest The Musical by Amira Al Shanti, celebrating the strength and spirit of the women of Gaza. 

Fadi Murad’s Flux In This Forgotten Farm is billed as a performance ‘between fire and water,’ while And Here I Am’s coming-of-age story will take audiences on a journey from Jenin Refugee Camp to an Israeli prison.

There’s also a dance double-bill of Amir Sabra’s Within This Party and Che: (Not) A Ballet by Nur Garabli. In Performance Desperately In Need Of An Audience, Mahmoud Al-Hourani blends puppetry, silence and dark humour to explore survival. Welcome To Gaza, from the Hands Up Project, stitches together 19 short plays by children from Gaza and the West Bank. In Gaza Food And Stories, Diline Abushaban invites audiences into her kitchen, sharing traditional recipes and personal memories. 

Rapper Lafi, from Jabalia camp in Gaza, also takes the stage with a set that blends lyricism, melody and Palestinian storytelling. The festival closes with an electrifying Arab A Dub DJ Set by Bruno Cruz, a dive into Palestinian underground music, pulsing with fresh beats.

‘This is a gesture of solidarity,’ says playwright and co-organiser Sara Shaarawi. ‘But it’s also a celebration. Palestinian artists don’t just resist… they create. They hold joy, pain, absurdity and beauty all at once. They deserve to be seen and heard. Art and theatre have always played a role in humanising narratives and in resisting oppression, in communal processing and remembrance, and that is all reflected in the Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine programme. It’s more urgent than ever now to reach out and lift up our Palestinian friends and colleagues, at a time where they are facing so much censorship, harassment and violence.’

Each work in the programme offers a kind of archival pulse, preserving language, culture and imagination against the slow violence of suppression. For playwright David Greig, the festival offers a chance to connect beyond despair. ‘Art changes hearts. This project is a chance for us all to go beyond statistics, despair and political soundbites and, instead, to meet Palestinians where they are: heart, wit and soul.’

Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine, Portobello Town Hall, Tuesday 12–Friday 15 August; main picture: Oliver King.