Nawafiz festival in Utrecht dates, past line-ups and tickets for TivoliVredenburg's Arab music festival

What is Nawafiz?

Nawafiz is a one-day music festival for Arab pop and the music around it, held in several rooms of TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. The name is Arabic (نوافذ) and means "windows". TivoliVredenburg calls it "our own Arabic music festival": the venue organises it, with programmer Loubna El Boujoufi, who has worked at the venue since 2019 and has programmed music from the Middle East and North Africa there since 2024.

The festival is built around artists from across the region and the diaspora: Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria all appear in the line-ups. The programmer has said the music is pop and the genres inside it, and that everyone is welcome but the festival is made for the Arab and bicultural audience. The idea is that even a fan of Arab music always meets one name they do not know yet.

It is a young festival: the first edition was in 2024, the second in 2025 and the third in 2026.

When is Nawafiz?

Nawafiz has always been held in late May: on Friday 24 May 2024, Saturday 24 May 2025 and Saturday 30 May 2026. The 2026 edition is the last one held, with doors at 17:30 and concerts until 03:00. The market and the food stalls closed at midnight.

The dates for 2027 are not announced yet. TivoliVredenburg publishes each edition as its own page in its agenda, and early-bird tickets for 2026 were on sale in February, with the first artists named at the same time.

Where is it held?

All three editions took place at TivoliVredenburg, the music venue in the centre of Utrecht next to the central station. The festival spreads over several rooms: in 2026 the concerts ran in Pandora, Cloud Nine and Club Nine, with Park 6, the K.F. Hein Foyer and the Pandora Foyer used for the rest. In 2025 it was Ronda, Pandora, Cloud Nine, Park 6 and the Pandora Foyer.

The festival's programme and tickets are published on TivoliVredenburg's own agenda, one page per edition.

What to expect: music, market and food

The core is the concerts, spread over several stages. The line-ups mix rap, mahraganat (an Egyptian genre), alternative and indie pop, electronic music and DJ sets. Every edition so far has had a Disco Arabesquo night, a DJ set of Arab pop from the 1990s and 2000s to today, and in 2024 and 2025 a Dabke Night, where the Dabke Night team teaches the dabke, a popular dance that originated in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Iraq.

The 2026 line-up included Kozbara, the Egyptian mahraganat artist, the Palestinian singer-songwriters Rasha Nahas and Kokym, the Kuwaiti singer-songwriter Etaf, the Saudi rapper and singer Asayel, the Egyptian artist Nour and the Moroccan rapper OTAT, together with Ma-Beyn, Wael Alkak, Simona Abdallah, Masri, Abo El Anwar, Disco Arabesquo and Habibis World.

The 2025 edition included Stormy, Ziad Zaza, Lina Makoul, Lana Lubany, DAM, Narcy, Bedouin Burger, Double Zuksh and Ahmed Eid. In 2024 the first edition had Shkoon, Marwan Moussa, El Sawareekh, Aïta Mon Amour and Kazdoura.

Beside the stages there is a souq, a market with designers, makers and other stalls, and food and drinks. In 2026 that meant Darras Coffee and Lemoene with Syrian and Lebanese food, and two workshops: Tatreez, Palestinian embroidery, and darbuka, the goblet drum, with Simona Abdallah.

Tickets and practical information

Tickets are sold through TivoliVredenburg. For 2026 a festival ticket cost €40, or €35 each when four people bought together. The workshops could be added at checkout. Holders of the U-pas could reserve a ticket for €10, with one drink and the cloakroom included.

The 2025 edition offered four tickets for the price of three and a U-pas ticket for €5. The festival was 18+ after 23:00 that year and you could walk in and out until midnight. The terms are set on each edition's ticket page, so read the one for the year you go.

Early-bird tickets for 2026 went on sale in February, at the same time as the first artists were named, through the link in the Instagram bio of @arabmusicnl. That account is worth following if you want to be early.