Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2025

Saudi Design Festival, a physical hub for creatives to highlight design

Saudi Design Festival, a physical hub for creatives to highlight design

The global pandemic shut down much of the world—but not Basma Bouzo’s ambition or imagination. As a self-proclaimed “cultural instigator,” Bouzo took the challenges of the pandemic in her stride and used it as an opportunity to found the Saudi Design Festival.
The first of its kind in the Middle East, the three-week festival opened in historic Diriyah on Sunday. A pioneer in creating niche initiatives in the Kingdom for the past 14 years, she took a lesson from the pandemic and reflected on how to streamline the way in which design is presented in Saudi Arabia.

“The pandemic has so many negative connotations, but it really accelerated a lot of things and a lot of plans; it really made us push towards this new structure,” she told Arab News.

In the 21-day ticketed festival in the hip district of Al-Diriyah Al-Jadida, or New Diriyah, where curated local and international talents are invited to come together to experiment, collaborate and learn about each other. Workshops, talks, and contests will be announced soon. The general public will also be encouraged to stop by and offer support.

“We are re-shaping what a design festival is. We moved from Design Week, which is huddled in one place, in one location and everything under that umbrella, to toward eventually a city-wide activation that would put design at the center because design is everywhere—you have to just look at it,” she said.

No stranger to the local and global art & design scene, Bouzo and her sister Noura started pulling together narratives from Saudi voices in 2007 and presenting them in a print publication, the aptly titled Oasis magazine. In 2014, she launched Saudi Design Week and now, in 2022, the Saudi Design Festival.

“The crux of what we started doing is that a lot of people didn’t understand that Saudi design existed,” she said.

She said that, while there has always been a talent pool in the Kingdom, it was difficult to see and develop because there was no clear place in which people could easily meet and mingle. There was no design community.

The decision to host it in the Jax Art District was serendipitous.

“I think part of our journey has been always finding locations that are unique that people kind of overlook — and this fell into place with our partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the Architecture and Design Commission,” she said.

Jax Art District is a cluster of warehouses that house different creative spaces. Many of the studios are still being built and the work-in-progress feel serves as a symbolic backdrop for this festival.

Amid the seemingly never-ending construction in Jax, the location also serves as fuel for Bouzo to keep going. The entire area is being created in real time, from the ground up — much like the festival itself.

Riyadh-native Munira Altheeb visited the Saudi Design Festival on its opening night and was very proud at how her home town was morphing into a hub for designers. She appreciated the community which Bouzo is creating and was energized by the promise of what is to come.

“As someone from Riyadh, I never would have imagined that this festival would be happening — culture and design together in one space, with young people and professional designers together. I’m really happy to be in it,” she told Arab News.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
×