The 18th Emirates Airline Festival of Literature commenced on January 21st along Dubai Creek, launching an eight-day celebration of global literary arts with a profoundly local spirit. This year’s opening ceremony at InterContinental Festival City transformed into an evocative homage to pre-literate storytelling traditions, emphasizing memory and oral history over written texts.
Emirati poets, musicians, and performers established the festival’s thematic foundation by revisiting an era when narratives traveled verbally through homes rather than libraries. The National Youth String Chamber Orchestra and Repton Al Barsha Choir provided melodic accompaniment while Dubai Police’s mounted cavalry and young drummers contributed visual rhythm, creating a multisensory experience that connected contemporary arts with cultural heritage.
One of the most poignant moments featured Um Mohammed, whose recollections of old Dubai were preserved through the Erth Dubai heritage project. She described a tightly-knit community where open doors facilitated constant communication and the creek served as daily companion rather than tourist landmark. Emirati poet Shamma Al Bastaki later articulated poetry’s role as “a vessel for preserving lived experience,” drawing inspiration from her father’s nautical life and the celestial navigation methods of sailors.
International voices echoed these themes, with children’s author Rachel Bright and poet Afra Atiq discussing poetry as “an act of belief” during a walk through Shindagha that inspired place-specific verse. Festival Director Ahlam Bolooki framed the evening as a reminder that “stories have always been part of who we are” long before they were committed to paper.
The festival, featuring over 200 sessions and participants from 40 nationalities, will concurrently celebrate the 20th anniversaries of both the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. While promising diverse programming ranging from crime fiction to Nobel laureate conversations, the opening ceremony established literature not merely as written art but as living practice connecting generations through shared narrative traditions.