The 13th Babil Festival for World Cultures and Arts began on 9th October in the ancient city of Babylon, where organisers claimed its visitors were from around 42 countries.

Babil Governor Ali Turki al-Jumali lit the torch at the beginning, Iraqi News Agency reported. This year’s theme for the festival is “We are all Babylonians.”

On the very first day, there was an art exhibition by artist Makki Imran, and the Babil International Book Fair was held with the participation of various publishers. The short play staged by the artist Hussein Maltus was performed at the Babylonian Theatre, which was addressed by UNESCO. The signing of a book on “A Century of Iraqi Creativity” took place, and the band “Nagham wa Resala” performed.

The poet-in-chief of the festival, Ali al-Shallah, told Shafaq News that the festival this year is among the biggest ones. The participants are Iraqi, Arab and international writers, artists, poets and musicians, including visual artists Morsi Khalifa and Faisal Laibi, he said. Visitors were also from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.

The programme hosts approximately 40 book fair publishers, eight art exhibitions and a group show of the works of approximately 50 Iraqi artists, Al-Shallah said. The book fair has exhibits of replicas of Babylonian artefacts. Three plays will be performed, and Arabic, Iranian and Kurdish groups will perform.

The festival is also celebrating the 100th anniversary of some of the pioneers of Iraqi culture, the news agency said.

The 12th edition that took place last year attracted over 400 artists and writers from Iraq and other countries to Babylon, Shafaq News reports.