D-CAF

D-CAF, the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, is a multidisciplinary festival of contemporary art, first held in 2012 and now staged in Cairo each October. Its founder and artistic director is Ahmed El Attar. The festival describes its role as a showcase for independent art in Egypt. Its programme covers music, film, the performing arts, visual and new media art, street performance, workshops and panel discussions.

D-CAF has staged events in historic and disused Downtown buildings made available through a partnership with Al Ismaelia, among them Radio Cinema, the Kodak Passageway, the old French consulate and Viennoise. Alongside the main festival it runs Arab Arts Focus, with the Tamasi collective, and Arts for All, a community programme; its Urban Visions street programme ran until 2018. The festival hub is in the Shourbagy Building on Mohamed Farid Street.

The 14th edition, D-CAF 2026, runs from 11 October to 2 November 2026 across about ten venues in Cairo and Alexandria. Its visual arts strand includes five exhibitions. Nermine El Ansari shows Natural Scenes at Villa Violette and Mashrabia Gallery, and Whenever We Cross!, a comics exhibition, is at the Shourbagy Building. Jacopo Valentini shows On Zamalek's Nocturnal Vegetation at Soba Art Hub, and Ayman Khoury shows Tulun Mosque at Beit Tulun. Marina Abramović's Seven Deaths is at the AUC Tahrir Legacy Gallery. Entry to these exhibitions is free.