Plzen, West Bohemia, March 29 (CTK) – The forthcoming Arabfest, a festival of Arab culture in Plzen, will focus on migration and the refugee crisis, its director Tereza Svaskova has told CTK, adding that the number of visitors is likely to be far higher than in the past two years, when it reached 2,500.
The embassies of Arab countries want to present themselves more extensively at the festival this year, she said.
People have shown an increased interest in the festival, judging by their reactions on social networks and by the fact that most of the festival events have been sold out already, Svaskova said.
The 7th Arabfest, whose partner is the Plzen-seated West Bohemian University (ZCU), will start on March 30 and run through April 3.
The organisers say it is the largest similar festival in Central Europe, staged after the example of Liverpool’s Arab Arts.
In the past years, it mainly offered Arab cuisine, film, plastic arts, discussions about the Arab region, oriental markets, games, and courses of Arabic and calligraphy.
“This year, we’ve considered it inevitable to focus on topics, which is why we have chosen the focus on personal experience and testimony,” Svaskova said.
The festival’s record number of 80 guests will include personalities who visited the Middle East or live there and know the region.
Svaskova said the number of people who have bought the courses of Arabic and calligraphy has markedly increased.
Commenting on the programme, she mentioned sociologist Jan Daniel and humanitarian worker Zdenek Ralik’s lecture on the current migrant wave that will be held at the ZCU on Thursday afternoon.
On Saturday, the programme will include the second generation of Iraqis living in the Czech Republic. Together with a journalist, they will comment on current affairs including the attacks in Brussels.
The Arabfest will ceremonially open on Wednesday with Refugee Safari, a unique musical about borders, integration, war and armament industry. The musical has been played only once before in Jordan. It will have its European premiere in Plzen, equipped with Czech subtitles.
