Downtown Cairo's Street of Art: free shows Thursday to Saturday, 6 to 9pm
Puppet shows, poetry, music, painting and caricature fill Al-Sherifein Street and the Borsa Triangle every weekend evening, with no tickets needed.
Al-Sherifein Street and the Borsa Triangle, Downtown, Cairo
Street of Art, the open-air programme run by Cairo Governorate and the Academy of Arts, takes over a small pedestrian patch of Downtown Cairo every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6pm to 9pm. It covers Al-Sherifein Street and the Borsa Triangle next to it, in the restored Khedivial quarter, and every performance is free.
The programme mixes poetry readings, puppet shows, singing, painting, dance and caricature, with music that ranges from a traditional takht ensemble to opera and musical theatre. It started on 21 May, grew out of an open-air art studio held on the same street in January with Helwan University's Faculty of Fine Arts, and has since been copied on Nabi Daniel Street in Alexandria. Egyptian Streets reports that a second Cairo edition is planned at the Magra El-Oyoun aqueduct; no date has been given for it.
Anyone can stop and watch: there is nothing to book and no entry fee, and people simply gather as they pass. Go between 6pm and 9pm from Thursday to Saturday. The nearest metro station is Mohamed Naguib, a short walk away. The street is not completely closed to cars, so keep an eye on children near the road.