Alwan International Children’s Festival Open Call for Performing Groups (deadline for applications March 30, 2026)

Alwan International Festival Open Call

Thank you for your interest in submitting your show for Alwan 2026. Please read the following information carefully before filling out the form.

Alwan is a children’s outdoor festival that takes place annually on the last weekend of September (24-27 Sept 2026) at the gardens of Children Museum Jordan in Amman. The target age of the festival is 3-12. It takes place over four days:

Thursday is a community day where two groups of 500 underprivileged children are invited through NGOs to come and attend a short version of the festival. Each group spends two beautiful hours at the festival enjoying some of the street theatre shows, the parade shows and installations. Street theatre shows perform only once on that day while walking acts perform twice for half an hour each time.

Friday and Saturday (official weekend days in Jordan): each day is split into a morning session and afternoon session. The sessions are identical in programming and are four hours each. Visitors purchase a ticket for one session and attend all shows and activities. Participating groups perform one time in each session. Therefore four times in total during the two days. Please see here a schedule example https://www.alwanfestival.com/festival-schedule .

Sunday outreach day: on Sunday each participating company or show performs one time in municipalities outside Amman also for underprivileged communities who cannot reach us. We drive to these communities and perform for them for free. Each company performs one time on that day.

- shows must be non-verbal: due to the fact that our audience have different backgrounds, we prefer shows that are non verbal or have little words so that there is no language barrier.

- shows must be culturally appropriate for Jordan in terms of content and costumes. Companies may decide to amend or edit the content or costumes to fit the local culture as long as it does not affect the attractiveness of the shows.

- shows must work outdoors in a casual setting that seats 400 people.

- shows must work during day time as most of the festival takes place during the day.

- for street theater shows technical rider must be simple because there is one hour between each show and the other at the same location.

- only shows that can submit a full recording of the show will be considered for Alwan. Recording does not have to be professional but must be complete.

- We are a festival against Geneocide, Occupation, Oppression and Apartheid and we abide by the BDS cultural boycott standards. Therefore, if your company has affiliations, relations or planned events for the occupying genocidal state of Israel or any similar state, we ask you not to apply to our festival.