Shubbak Festival is the UK's largest biennial celebration of contemporary Arab culture, bringing new and unexpected voices together with established artists to London – and other parts of the UK. It returns for its seventh edition this summer, from June 23 to July 9, so Mickey got on the Zoom with its joint CEOs, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso and Alia Alzougbi, to find out more.

They chat about what to expect from this enormous celebration of Arab artists’ creativity, innovation and diversity, as well as how it’s hard *not* to programme women, why it’s so important to share and celebrate Arab cultures across communities, and some of the challenges of putting together such an enormous, borders-busting festival.

Check out the Shubbak programme at shubbak.co.uk – and keep your eyes peeled for a few Standard Issue faves.

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SIM Ep 860 Chops 258: Opening the window on the Shubbak Festival