YIRRAMBOI in Jordan: Festivals as Living Gatherings

YIRRAMBOI Artistic Lead, Sherene Stewart, was selected to join The Festival Academy’s Atelier for Young Festival Managers, held across Amman and Aqaba, Jordan, in partnership with IDEA Festival, Studio 8, and Wujud.

Bringing together 46 creative leaders from 31 countries across 6 continents, including powerful voices from the Arab world representing Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen, the Atelier became a space of deep reflection and global solidarity, exploring how festivals can challenge censorship, nurture inclusion, and remain catalysts for social and cultural transformation.

“The opportunity to connect with festival leaders from across the Arab world and beyond was deeply moving. It reaffirmed that festivals are not just stages for performance or platforms for economic impact, they are living gatherings of cultural innovation, spaces where imagination becomes action and where art speaks directly to the hearts and minds of audiences to create real change across the globe.

I felt immense pride sharing the stories of the First Peoples of Australia, our power, our continuity, our resilience. We are not just custodians of the world’s oldest living cultures; we are innovators, leaders, and visionaries shaped by over 4,000 generations of cultural knowledge. Much like YIRRAMBOI, I was reminded that truth-telling through art is not an act of defiance but an act of love, legacy, and liberation.”
- Sherene Stewart, Artistic Lead, YIRRAMBOI

These moments remind us that festivals are not just fleeting celebrations, but acts of continuation, living movements of imagination, sovereignty, and collective power.