A one-night festival with a charitable backbone is landing at Expo City Dubai. WASLA — Arabic for 'connection' — takes place on November 28, 2026, pairing a line-up of acclaimed Arab artists with fundraising for displaced communities across the region, in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The festival is the brainchild of BRAG, a Dubai-based events outfit, and arrives at a moment when roughly 117.8 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes. Organisers want the evening to do more than entertain: the aim is to draw new audiences into the conversation around displacement, and to keep dignity and hope for refugee families front and centre.
The bill leans heavily on artists whose music carries themes of peace, identity and heritage. Headline names include Marcel Khalife, the legendary Lebanese composer, singer and oud master whose career spans five decades; Le Trio Joubran, the Palestinian brothers famed for their virtuosic oud trio performances; TootArd, the Syrian duo of brothers Hasan and Rami Nakhleh playing their fuzzed-up desert rock; and Fatima (formerly known as FAFA), the Abu Dhabi-based singer blending R&B, soul and Arabian jazz.
Festival creative director Roula Ghalayini frames it as a night built around shared humanity — a space that celebrates culture and expression while standing in solidarity with families forced to flee. Tickets start at Dhs 350, and updates land via @waslafestival.
Why it matters for travellers: Dubai's winter season is already packed with big concerts, but WASLA is a rarer proposition — a chance to hear giants of Arabic music (Khalife and the Joubran brothers rarely tour this region together) in a purpose-built venue, with the ticket doing some good along the way. Expo City Dubai, the former Expo 2020 site, is easy to reach via the Expo 2020 metro station, and late November sits comfortably in Dubai's cooler, outdoor-friendly season. If you're in town for the long UAE weekend, pairing the festival with a wander around the Expo City grounds makes for a solid cultural day out.
