Designed to be different: a look at Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse 421

Waiting for a cultural festival in Abu Dhabi is a bit like hanging around for a silver taxi these days: you wait for ages for one to come along, then a whole cluster arrive at once.

Next week sees the opening of Abu Dhabi Art on Saadiyat Island and the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival in Al Wathba; and on Thursday, Warehouse 421, the latest arts-and-culture initiative from the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (SHF) also opens with a three-day festival in Mina Zayed.

Warehouse 421 is designed to support local creative talent while providing a gentle, community-focused introduction to the arts in all their variety. The guiding principle behind the opening festival would definitely seem to be less is a bore and more is more.

“One of the aims is to try to drive new audiences to the arts, and one of the ways we hope to do this is by persuading people to come, have a good time, listen to a performance or to have some food – and then, while they are here, they can also enjoy the arts,” explains Khulood Al Atiyat, SHF’s manager for arts, culture and heritage.

Original article by Nick Leech

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Designed to be different: a look at Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse 421