Salam Brisbane Middle Eastern Dance Festival

Overview

On any given weekend in Brisbane, there's a festival raring to fill your days and nights with fun. But, even if you collect fests like most people collect Pokemon, you haven't been to an event like this before.

For the first time ever, the city will play host to an international celebration of the kind of moving and grooving known as belly dancing. At the Salam Brisbane Middle Eastern Dance Festival from July 29 to 31, you can learn to shimmy and shake, see seasoned professionals do the same, or treat yo'self to a combination of the above.

In fact, if making the first steps towards taking to the stage yourself is just what you're after, you'll find more than 24 hours' worth of workshops delivering everything you could hope for. And if watching the masters at work is more your style, then enjoy performances by international star Mercedes Nieto, as well as local talents Jrisi Jusakos, Nayima Hassan, Rose Ottaviano, Virginia Rizkallah, Nasser Masri, Nerissa, Ambyr and Alice Knox as part of Salam Ya Raqs! A Dance Voyage, the fest's centrepiece event on July 31 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Image: Igor Plaza Photography.