Hello folks,
Disclaimer: this newsletter is pretty Edinburgh-centric so if you’re not that way inclined, feel free to run for the hills now…
We have news of two Monday Meet Ups that we’re organising on 10th & 17th of this month, and details of some wonderful performances that are happening in Edinburgh this month by Palestinian artists at the festivals.
Firstly, we have been working with our friends at Birds of Paradise to host a Meet Up for Disabled & Neurodivergent Artists & Arts Workers at Summerhall. Details below.
This time last August, we were running around getting ready to welcome artists from Palestine to Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Welcome to the Fringe Palestine ran for four days, included 20 events, 35 artists from Palestine and diaspora and the hard work of over 70 volunteers. It was a beautiful thing.
Sadly, there is no Welcome to the Fringe Palestine this year (more on this soon), but… we are planning to bring it back in 2027.
If you were one of the amazing volunteers who made the event possible, or you’re interested in helping out please see details of our Meet Up to find out more, below.
Thanks for supporting IAP.
Take care,
Mhari & Team IAP (Biff, Chloe, Eilidh, Noémie, Saffy, Sara & Ketchup)
Independent Arts Projects and Birds of Paradise
Meet Up for Disabled Artists and Arts Workers
If you’re a D/deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent artist and/or arts worker at the Fringe this August we’d love to meet, chat and give you the opportunity to meet others at our meetup event on Monday 10 August at the Library Gallery at Summerhall.
No need to book, just drop in at any point between 2PM – 4PM!
We’ll have a roaming BSL interpreter at the event, sensory bags, additional fidgets and there is step-free access (level entrance to Summerhall can be found at the side of the building, on Summerhall Square).
If you have any questions about the event, need more access information, or if events like this cause any anxiety we can help to ease please get in touch at all@boptheatre.co.uk.
We look forward to meeting you there! 
WTTFP 2027 Volunteers Meet Up
We are holding an informal Meet Up for people who volunteered at Welcome to the Fringe Palestine 2025 or those interested in volunteering in 2027.
We want to thank those that gave their time, commitment and solidarity last year – and also to share a little about our plans for Welcome to the Fringe Palestine 2027.
We’ve booked a wee space in Leith, and we’ll put on some snacks and refreshments. We hope you can make it.
If you’re interested in being involved but can’t make this event, please email: volunteer@i-a-p.net.
Date: Monday 17 August
Time: 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Big Duncan, Duncan Place, 4 Duncan Place, Leith, EH6 8HW.
The venue is step free.
Lothian Buses: 1, 7, 14, 16, 21, 25, 34, 35, 49.Tram stop: Foot of the walk (4min walk). Trams are not currently running.
Please RSVP by completing this Google form by Monday 10 August at 5pm
Shows by Palestinian Artists at Edinburgh Festivals 2026
Come Back Home
Fadi Murad
Thu 6 – Mon 31 Aug (no shows Mon 17 & 24 Aug) | 1.15pm
First presented as an excerpt in Welcome to the Fringe Palestine in 2025, Fadi Murad, winner of this year’s Summerhall Meadows Award, returns to Edinburgh with the full-length version of his solo theatre piece, Come Back Home.
Come Back Home is an intimate exploration of grief and the ways the past continues to shape us. Blending humour, surreal imagery and dream-like logic, Murad examines fear, self-doubt and uncertainty through a rich combination of text, video, and sound. The performance reflects on how loss influences our identities, our hopes, and our understanding of what ‘home’ means.
At the heart of the work is a deeply personal memory: nine-year-old Murad singing ‘Mad World’ at his mother’s memorial. This striking moment weaves together childhood, Western pop culture and Palestinian heritage, forming the emotional centre of the piece. While rooted in personal experience, Come Back Homealso speaks to contemporary life in Palestine, revealing how restrictions, checkpoints and ongoing uncertainty shape even the most private experiences of grief. Through fragmented storytelling, Murad asks how we hold onto a sense of self when the idea of home itself is fragile.
https://festival.summerhallarts.co.uk/events/come-back-home/
The Horse of Jenin
Alaa Shehada in association with Palestine Comedy Club and Pleasance
Returning after a Fringe First award-winning, sold-out run, as a Rolling Stone Top 10 Show. This is a universal story of resilience and imagination, written and performed by comedian and actor Alaa Shehada. Blending storytelling, mask and stand-up, the show follows a boy growing up in Jenin, Occupied Palestine, who just wants to play. After a 2002 invasion, local children and a German artist built a five-metre horse from debris – a symbol of freedom and resistance. Destroyed in 2023, Shehada rebuilds the Horse on stage from fragments of memory, loss and hope. ***** (Guardian).
The Horse of Jenin | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Bridge
Palestine Comedy Club
Award-winning Palestinian theatre-maker Alaa Shehada brings his mix of storytelling, stand-up and physical comedy to the story of The Bridge, as he travels from his home in the West Bank to Jordan bringing olive oil from this year’s harvest – a gift of separation from his mother in Jenin for her sister in Amman. The Bridge traces the history of the British in Palestine and reveals the symbolic significance of this crossing for Palestinians through Alaa’s story and those of the characters who join him on his journey; a bizarre road trip through Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian checkpoints.
The Bridge | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
MAJENIN – A Palestinian Love Story
Kufiya Comedy, Pleasance, Aisha Josiah, and Passion Pit Theatre
Majenin means ‘crazy people’ in Arabic. The Palestinian rom-com you’ve been waiting for: a tale of two fools who dare to love in a world obsessed with their sadness. Torn between New York, London and Palestine, the only place they truly feel at home is inside of their shared madness. Writer/performer Marena Riyad joins award-winning director Justin Butcher (Scaramouche Jones) and producer Aisha Josiah (Dickless). Blending theatre and stand-up, it’s an intimate, satirical, poetic occupation of the heart. ‘Pure comedy gold… that rare combination of vulnerability and bite’ **** (One4Review.co.uk).
MAJENIN – A Palestinian Love Story | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You
Salam & Holohan
It seems hate is the sole domain of the far right, and Sami asks – can people who care start hating again? Can hate help us? And most importantly – can hate be funny? Award-winning comedian, clown and very silly man, Sami Abu Wardeh, returns with a chaotic exploration of the value of hate today. ‘The rockstar voice of the Palestinian diaspora’ (Alexei Sayle). ‘Defiantly goofy’ ***** (Guardian). ‘A virtuoso display’ ***** Rolling Stone. ‘A rare exception’ **** (Chortle.co.uk).
Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sami Abu-Wardeh: Palestine – Peace de Resistance
Salam & Holohan
You can run from resistance, but it always catches up with you, as Sami finds out in his critically acclaimed, ‘defiantly goofy comedy’ **** (Guardian). Following last year’s mega successful Fringe run, multiple sold-out runs, a sell-out debut tour across the UK and Ireland, Palestine: Peace de Resistance is back. As a Palestinian born in exile, only to be displaced from his country of birth by yet another war, Sami digs deep into his ties to resistance and Palestinian identity. What emerges is a bold show that asks whether resistance can be funny.
Sami Abu-Wardeh: Palestine – Peace de Resistance | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sammy Obeid: WIT SUPREMACY
Sammy Obeid
Lebanese-Palestinian American, Sammy Obeid majored in mathematics and turned down a job at Google to be a comedian. He was the host of 100 Humans on Netflix and known for his world record of performing 1,001 comedy nights.
Sammy Obeid: WIT SUPREMACY | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country?
Trojan Women Project presents Arwa Omaren
Trojan Women Project presents Palestinian Syrian actress Arwa Omaren’s Offie-nominated one woman play about her perilous journey from Syria to the UK. Hope, humour and defiance battle danger and despair as she moves from life as a Palestinian refugee in Syria through near fatal abandonment on the Mountain of Death to homelessness on the streets of London. She weaves the words of Euripides’ Hecuba, Queen of Troy, into her own story, personifying the eternal nature of war, exile and loss.
Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Hanna Shammas Takes It To Heart
Palestine Comedy Club
This effortlessly charming comedian and writer combines storytelling and stand-up comedy to explore the complexities of everyday life as a Palestinian living in the 1948 territories, in the city of Haifa. During a stay in hospital he discovers he has a hole in his heart and with wry social commentary and hilarious self-reflection he searches for the source of the hole: the women in his life or his family? The insanity of his identity as a Palestinian living in Haifa? Or his ludicrously unsupportive psychologist? Inevitably, Hanna takes it all to heart.
Hanna Shammas Takes It To Heart | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah
Khashabi Theatre
Based on the legendary poem Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah (The Epic of Bani Hilal) this exhilarating retelling merges physical theatre with poetry, live music, puppetry and dance. Murkus and Basel’s unique theatrical works are informed by extensive research and seek to ask questions of humanity – from within Palestine and beyond.
Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah | Edinburgh International Festival
Reminder: Sensory Collective Jobs
Since we were last in touch, we held a Q&A for artists interested in applying and we’ve now included all the questions asked in a Frequently Asked Questions guide at the bottom of the Sensory Artists job page on our website. See the link below.
Sensory Producer (0.8 FTE / 4 days / 28hrs per week)
£32,000 per year (£25,600 actual). 18 month contract
Deadline for applications: 12 noon, Monday 24 August 2026
Start date: Week of 28 September 2026.
Go to: independentartsprojects.com/producer-sensory-collective/
Sensory Artist – 4 jobs (0.6 FTE / 3 days / 21hrs per week)
£32,000 per year (£19,200 actual). 15 month contract
Deadline for applications: 12 noon, Monday 21 September 2026
Start date: week of 2 November 2026.
Go to: independentartsprojects.com/sensory-artist/
Photo credits – (WTTF): Mihaela Bodlovic. (Sensory Collective): Catriona Parmenter.
Independent Arts Projects gratefully acknowledges support from Creative Scotland & Culture Collective.