AlUla Arts Festival breathes life into the ancient Saudi city
Maghie Ghali

Running until 22 February 2025 the annual festival offers a vast mix of visual arts, performances, film screenings and exhibitions
Seeking to connect past, present and future through contemporary arts, the AlUla Arts Festival is back for this fourth edition, with an eclectic program of performances, exhibitions and events. Aiming to rethink the cultural landscape, against the backdrop of the mesmerising sands and mountains that make AlUla so striking, the festival acts as a crossroads of heritage, history and modernity.
Running until 22 February 2025, with many shows extended through to April, the annual festival offers a vast mix of visual arts, music and dance performances, film screenings, exhibitions, talks, open studios and more, from leading Saudi and international creatives.
At the heart of the festival is Gathering Square in the AlJadidah Arts District, a recently added cultural area brimming with art and design spaces, concept stores, independent cafes and public spaces that engage visitors. It acts as the perfect setting, alongside AlUla’s enchanting Old Town, to allow full immersion in the activities taking over the city in the coming months.
“AlUla Arts Festival is a testament to our vision of AlUla as a global centre of cultural exchange,” Royal Commission for AlUla executive director of arts and creative industries Nora Aldabal says. “We look forward to witnessing visitors interact with the artworks, people and places of AlUla, where contemporary art lives in conversation with ancient heritage and landscapes.”
The program celebrates the many players of the Arts AlUla ecosystem, including Wadi AlFann, an upcoming 65-square-kilometre, where monumental land artworks by award-winning artists will be permanently installed in the desert.
One of the confirmed commissions will be undertaken by pioneering American light and space artist James Turrell, and so to give eager audiences a sneak peek of what’s to come, an exhibition of his work and plans for the installation is being shown.

Running until 19 April, the exhibition - curated by Michael Govan, CEO of Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA) - offers visitors an insider understanding of his practice, and fascination with light and optics as a substance, rather than mere illumination. Light art installations, as well as renders, plans and a constellation map relating to his upcoming commission in AlUla, can be seen.
“I first visited the Wadi AlFann site in 2020. I was surprised that the sandstone formations looked very similar to those in Arizona. I was very familiar with that kind of landscape and strangely felt at home with doing work there,” Turrell says. “The work envisioned for Wadi AlFann will have two large Skyspaces and two small Skyspaces, that each address different aspects of the sky. All of my Skyspaces engage the natural light of the area. The light quality in AlUla is of dry desert air with little moisture, which yields a light in the sky that is crisp and clear.”
A monumental sequence of chambers will be excavated through the canyon floor, to create a sensorial experience of space, colour, and perception, with tunnels and stairs leading to vast rooms that pay homage to the celestial light of the sun, moon and stars.
Other highlights of the festival include Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui’s “Bayt Al Hams” (The Whispering House) exhibition at AlWarsha space, exploring musical improvisation and alternative ways to create sound. While the exhibition runs until 16 April, a concert was held during the festival’s opening night, presenting these ideas to the curious crowd.
Performed in collaboration with musician Toma Gouband and local school children, experimental ‘instruments’ in the form of rocks, pools of water, natural materials like lentils or tree branches, as well as traditional instruments, were used to create an unconventional symphony. The accompanying exhibition showcases all these instruments and techniques used by Atoui, allowing the public to try them out for themselves.

“The preparation was relatively short. I spent four days with the kids, and what made it that easy and possible was their open mindedness and how motivated and welcoming to these ideas they were,” Atoui tells Madam Arabia. “We came up with a new definition of music that was at the cross-section of sound and contemporary art, and we worked with them in a way that was based on improvisation. It was first of all about enjoying listening to each other and then seeing what happens.
“There were traditional rhythms, there were experimental, and it was really like a journey through a lot of places, but stemming from AlUla, so that was also magical,” he adds. “The context of AlUla is very unique because I’ve done similar works in other places that were maybe more familiar with electronic music and these experimental concepts, but for many here, it was something completely new. The audience response was great.”
At Dar Tantora in Old Town and Wadi AlNaam in the desert, a project shown in two parts is on show until 27 February. Created by Saudi artist Sarah Brahim and French artist Ugo Schiavi, “NEUMA – The Forgotten Ceremony” is a collaborative artwork embodying the identity of Villa Hegra – the Saudi-French institution set to open in central AlUla.

The project features an indoor exhibition at Dar Tantora, showing hand-blown glass sculptures made to look like the stones around AlUla, and an outdoor installation at Wadi AlNaam, resembling a minimalist glass temple for reflection.
On 29 January and 18 February, people will have the chance to take in “To the Eagles,” a lecture performance by Saudi artists and researcher Ayman Zedani, showcasing a project rooted in the rich history of the Arabian Peninsula.
Based on about three years of artistic research, Zidani explores the region’s diverse past, encompassing both key historic discoveries and ongoing archaeological and ecological projects, and tries to rethink how we look at history, especially for sites like Al-Bad’, Aynuna and Neom in the Tabuk area, and Hegra, Al-Hijr and Dadan near AlUla.
“I'm going to take people on a journey through seven mountain peaks and seven spiritual valleys, arriving at different locations and key moments in history related to these sites, but also stories of the people, who are really the main protagonists of the Arabian Peninsula,” Zidani tells Madam Arabia. “I've spent all of this time accumulating archival material, photographic material, audio stories, all of this kind of research, and this event is the first step of sharing all this knowledge, with publications and other artistic projects to come.”
Activities at the AlUla Music Hub, Madrasat Addeera and Athr Gallery are also on the program, with a stunning exhibition of locally made crafts and designs at the recently opened Design Space AlUla.
“Raw to Revival,” organized in collaboration with Madrasat Addeera, spotlights the region’s cultural heritage and innovative design, presenting works created within Madrasat Addeera, emphasizing the intersection of tradition and modernity. It invites visitors to explore how local heritage can be fused with contemporary design, to create pieces that safeguard ancient techniques and materials and use updated forms for modern use.
The festival has something for all interests and is the perfect way to explore AlUla, allowing a greater understanding of the history it celebrates, whilst evolving alongside the global arts scene.
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