ADIRA Drag Festival 3.0 Brings Queer East Mediterranean Drag to Berlin
Berlin’s ADIRA Drag Festival returns this October with its most expansive edition yet, bringing together drag artists, performers, DJs and cultural practitioners from across the East Mediterranean and its diasporas around one deceptively simple question: Who’s Your Diva?
Founded by Hassandra and Zuher Jazmati, ADIRA Drag Festival began in 2024 as the world’s first Arab drag festival, drawing more than 700 attendees and 30 artists to Club Gretchen. Its second edition expanded into a three-day programme exploring speculative queer futures, erased histories and reclaimed mythologies. For ADIRA 3.0, the festival broadens its scope further, incorporating Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Cypriot and wider SWANA voices from Berlin, Paris, London, Athens and beyond.
The programme unfolds across Berlin throughout October. A Wikipedia workshop on 18th October at WikiBär will focus on researching, editing and creating pages for Arab pop divas, followed by an ADIRA Radio Takeover at Refuge Worldwide on 23rd October. The main festival show takes place at HAU Hebbel am Ufer on 30th October, followed by an all-night afterparty at ÆDEN, before a closing gathering and film screening at SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA on 31st October.
At the centre of this year’s edition is the diva herself: glamorous, contradictory, excessive and endlessly reinterpreted. From Haifa Wehbe and Despina Vandi to Bülent Ersoy, these figures have long held a particular place within queer cultural imagination, becoming icons through admiration, imitation and reinvention.
ADIRA Drag Festival turns that tradition into theatrical collision. Each performer reimagines a diva who has shaped their own journey, bringing these larger-than-life figures together on one stage through rivalry, alliance, satire and live improvisation.
Speaking to Féroce, ADIRA Drag Festival founder Hassandra reflected on the festival’s growth from a space created out of personal necessity into a wider gathering point for queer Arab and SWANA communities:
"ADIRA started from a very personal need, we wanted to create the kind of space we were looking for ourselves, a place where queer Arabs could meet, celebrate, and feel at home. Seeing it grow from a party into a gathering point for queer Arab and SWANA communities has been really emotional for us. It has also become a platform where we can connect different communities while pushing for better conditions and more sustainable opportunities for drag artists, DJs and nightlife workers.
Every year, we're surprised by how much ADIRA has grown, but what matters most to us is that it still feels like ours. This year, I'm especially excited to see all these different cultures, divas and stories come together on one stage, and to share that with the people who have helped make ADIRA what it is."
Performers
Diva Beirut (Paris/Beirut)
Chraja (Athens)
Sanad Qutaishat (Vienna)
Hassandra (Berlin)
Lujane Oud (London)
Madame du Cri (Paris)
Berfusra (Berlin)
itgirldalia (Cologne)
Kekik (Berlin)
Minu (Berlin)
Sharifa (Berlin)
Tahini Molasses (London)
DJs
Dania Najari (Berlin)
DJ Ay Ay Ay (Berlin)
DumTak (Berlin)
saHHar (Berlin)
São Moustafa (Paris)
Sherryaeri (Berlin)
SU (Braunschweig)
xanax_attax (Berlin)
The Full Festival Program
October 18 | 2 PM - 5 PM | WikiBär (Köpenicker Str. 45, 10179 Berlin).
Wikipedia Workshop with Thomas Schallhart: A collaborative workshop dedicated to researching, editing, and creating proper Wikipedia pages for Arab pop divas.
October 23 | 3 PM - 5 PM | Refuge Worldwide (Niemetzstraße 1, 12055 Berlin)
ADIRA Radio Takeover: A special broadcast exploring musical connections across the East Mediterranean with special guests: Ilgaz Yalçınoğlu (Kudur) & Trashkila Rania (Drag Riots)
October 30 | 6 PM - 10 PM (Doors open at 6PM) | HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1) (Stresemannstraße 29, 10963 Berlin)
ADIRA Drag Festival 3.0: "Who's Your Diva?!"
The main festival show: a Drag Theatre Ensemble in two acts with an intermission (see Act I and Act II above).
Ticket sale starts on September 1 on www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
October 30 | 11 PM - 6 AM | ÆDEN (Schleusenufer 3, 10997 Berlin)
ADIRA Drag Festival Afterparty: Featuring xanax_attax, Sherryaeri, SU, SaHHar, Dania Najari, DumTak, Sao Moustafa, DJ Ay Ay Ay and more artists to be announced.
October 31 | 6 PM | SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Lindower Str. 20/22/Haus C, 13347 Berlin)
A cooling-down closing gathering featuring a screening of Treat Me Like Your Mother by Mohamad Abdouni, followed by music by Anthony Hüseyin, Mediterranean meze, and conversations and reflections with the festival team on the process behind the festival.