The Lebanese singer Jahida Wehbe at the opening of the Beiteddine Festival, at the Beiteddine Palace, on July 10, 2025. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
This year, the Lebanese summer will not echo beneath the Roman columns of Baalbeck nor in the courtyards of the palace of Beiteddine. The successive cancellations of the country’s main festivals are creating an unprecedented landscape: a Lebanon gradually wiped from international cultural circuits, even as public demand remains strong.More than a series of isolated decisions, the withdrawals of Baalbeck, Beiteddine and the Cedars reveal the fragilities of a sector that, for decades, was an exception in a crisis-ridden region. While war is the immediate cause of these cancellations, the issue now goes beyond security alone. It touches on the country's very ability to envision a future. Read more ‘A hero never dies’: How a family’s story tells the story of Palestine through theater In Baalbeck, the choice to postpone carries...
This year, the Lebanese summer will not echo beneath the Roman columns of Baalbeck nor in the courtyards of the palace of Beiteddine. The successive cancellations of the country’s main festivals are creating an unprecedented landscape: a Lebanon gradually wiped from international cultural circuits, even as public demand remains strong.More than a series of isolated decisions, the withdrawals of Baalbeck, Beiteddine and the Cedars reveal the fragilities of a sector that, for decades, was an exception in a crisis-ridden region. While war is the immediate cause of these cancellations, the issue now goes beyond security alone. It touches on the country's very ability to envision a future. Read more ‘A hero never dies’: How a family’s story tells the story of Palestine through theater In Baalbeck, the choice to postpone...
