All what you need to know about Hakawy Festival

CAIRO – 23 February 2019: After eight successful years, AFCA for Arts and Culture launches the 9th edition of the Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children (Hakawy).

This year, the festival comes to the audiences in three cities, Cairo (March 7-15), Alexandria (March 4-5) and Menya on March 16 , presenting shows that incorporate object theater, puppet theater, black theater, physical theater, musical theater and modern dance across nine venues (Hanaguer Arts Center, Tahrir Culture Center, Historic Cairo, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Jesuit Cultural Center, AUEED centre in Menya).




The 9th edition of Hakawy includes eight international shows: (from UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, France and USA) in addition to nine Egyptian performances.
The festival includes a Dutch focus with three performances, in addition to the master-classes, workshops and talks led by the Dutch artists.

“The 9th edition is very important to AFCA. One of the reasons is that this edition is in relation with the festival’s anniversary, the 10th edition to take place in 2020.

The festival is going through major shifts and will tackle the industry from a wider perspective. This year, the festival has increased number of international shows, showcasing a larger number of Egyptian troupes.

‘’Over ten international delegates, directors of international festivals and theatres will attend Hakawy. This and many other factors will add to the building up of the Hakawy’s anniversary edition,” comments Mohamed El Ghawy, the founder and artistic director of the Hakawy festival and AFCA.

The festival opens with El-Leila El-Kebira (The Grand Night), Egypt’s internationally renowned puppet operetta with poetry by Salah Jahin, music by Sayed Mekawy and puppets created by Nagy Shaker. The performance commemorates father of the puppets, Nagy Shaker, who passed away in August last year.

Other Egyptian shows feature theatre artists such as Hend El Shimi, Samia Jaheen, Israa El Ghazaly, Kayan Marionette Theatre, Noon Creative Enterprise, among others.

“The increased presence of the Egyptian performances gives us an opportunity to present the local productions to the international art practitioners, theatre and festivals managers, the delegates who will attend the Hakawy festival.

We want to provide a platform for the Egyptian theatre practitioners to present their work. Among our core mission elements is not to be limited to importing the art but also to serve as a creative exporter of the Egyptian theatre talents, performances and many values that they carry,” El Ghawy explained.

The festival also stresses the Family Section, a segment that aims at bringing together children and their families to the shows.

As per festival’s regular practice, AFCA organizes school trips for the students to attend the morning shows during the week days, while the families will be able to attend the performances during the weekends.

Among this edition’s highlights is Storm, by the Bamboozle Theatre (UK) accessible to the children who are on the autistic spectrum.

A number of workshops and additional activities will take place in parallel to the shows on stage. For the third consecutive year, the Mobile Library “Stories on 4 Wheels” will provide story-telling to the young audience.


In previous eight editions, the Hakawy festival has brought to the Egyptian audiences 55 companies with a total of over 200 artists specialised in theatre for children, from 15 countries and four continents (Europe, America, Australia, and Africa).

The shows were staged to children in three governorates, Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor, this year expanding to Menya.

Apart of a large number of audience comprising of the children attending with their families, children from public and private schools, Hakawy’s inclusive strategies developed cooperation with 25 Egyptian institutions taking care of the economically-underprivileged children and orphanages, making sure that they attend the shows as well.

In addition, a number of performances have been staged inside the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo.

The festival’s 9th edition is supported by many partners including the Dutch Performing Arts in Netherlands, the British Council in Cairo, the French institute in Cairo, Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo, The Goethe-Institute in Cairo and Alexandria, Embassy of the United States of America, Embassy of the United Kingdom, Embassy of the Netherlands, the Egyptian Tourism Authority, the Ministry of Culture, Hanaguer Arts Center, Falaki Theater of Tahrir Culture Center, Megawra (Built Environment Collective), Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Jesuit Cultural Center (Alexandria), AUEED (Association of Upper Egypt For Education and Development) in Menya, among others.