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TR

Surfest II
Village Festivals

19-21 September 2025
DIYARBAKIR

SurFest was first held in 2024 at historical sites in the Sur district of Diyarbakır to preserve and promote cultural heritage. The festival featured concerts in Kurdish and Armenian, demonstrations of traditional clothing, traditional street games and folk story workshops for children, and online panels on Kurdish music.

In its second year, SurFest II "Village Festivals" were held in three rural neighbourhoods (villages) within the Sur district, due to the concentration of cultural and artistic activities in city centres and accessibility challenges in rural areas. The program was designed to address the right to cultural access in one's native language, focusing on women and children most affected by inequalities in rural areas.

The festival, organized in partnership with the Diyarbakır Sur Municipality, featured concerts, open-air film screenings, folk dance performances, artistic workshops for women, inflatable sports playgrounds for children, mind and intelligence playgrounds, and theater performances. The events aimed to increase social participation and make cultural activities accessible by supporting freedom of expression in participants' native languages.

Organized in collaboration with local governments and civil society organizations, the festival contributed to the expansion of cultural and artistic activities in rural areas, while also aiming to reduce cultural inequalities in the long term and raise awareness about organizing similar events in rural areas.

KASED

Founded in 2019 by a group of women artists in Diyarbakır, KASED is a unique women's organization that addresses the field of culture and arts from a gender equality perspective. It advocates for cultural access in its native language; it creates space for women artists, supports their production, increases their visibility, and conducts advocacy activities combating gender-based discrimination in the field of culture and arts.

To preserve and preserve the intangible Kurdish cultural heritage, it compiles traditional clothing, accessories, stories, and songs, promoting them through events. It celebrates the special days and holidays of different peoples and faiths in the region. It organizes accessible concerts, festivals, exhibitions, panels, and workshops that strengthen the visibility of women and Kurdish identities.

KASED aims to eliminate inequalities arising from mother tongue, gender, socioeconomic status, social norms, and spatial limitations. It organizes free workshops and courses for women and children in music (piano, violin, erbane, tenbûr), painting, folk dances, creative drama, and Kurdish literature. It develops collaborations with local and international institutions and organizations to implement sustainable projects for the preservation of cultural heritage and social transformation.

Connections:

https://kasedd.org/ 

https://www.instagram.com/kasedjin/ 

https://x.com/kasedjin 

This page is published on 16 September 2025.

TAGS: children, DİYARBAKIR, festival, music, women

This website was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union.
Its contents are the sole responsibility of the Goethe-Institut Istanbul and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.