Dubai exhibition reflects on Syria’s post-Assad transition 

RIYADH: Diriyah Season’s “Souk Wonders,” featuring trampolines, circus acrobatics, musical entertainment, balancing acts, and a variety of culinary experiences will come to a close on Friday.

“We have been doing it for a month now and we have done 33 shows and it’s been amazing — honestly, I love it here and I am really sad for it to be over,” Ghada Sheri, a singer and songwriter, told Arab News.

“I get to sing to people every day and see their reactions and I share the stage with amazing performers as well so that has been amazing,” she said.

“Souk Wonders” features traditional Najdi architecture, tents, a majlis, and an oversized marketplace scale that spins as guests are seated on it.

The performances kick off with a daring show featuring performers jumping off the edges of the traditional Najdi structures towards the crowd and onto a trampoline.

The routines come back-to-back, leaving audience members anticipating which way to turn next.

Carina Pires, a nurse from Portugal, has lived in the Kingdom for 12 years, and attended “Souk Wonders” with her friends.

“It’s been amazing. We have just been mesmerized. We don’t know where to look, it’s been so many things with so many emotions, it’s really good,” Pires told Arab News.

“It was amazing, I have been experiencing things here that I didn’t in my country,” she added.

When asked what her favorite part of the show was, Pires said: “Everything was amazing, I cannot point to one, it was everything.”

A unique feature of “Souk Wonders” is the currency. Although real money can be used, visitors are taken back in time as they are presented with gold Diriyah Season coins to make their purchases.

For example, a water bottle would cost guests 1 coin, with each coin valued at SR5 ($1.33). A regular ticket gives visitors 18 coins, and the platinum ticket allows for 24.

Along with live performances, “Souk Wonders” has restaurant and cafe booths that feature unique dishes that pay tribute to traditional flavors with modern-day twists all crafted by Saudi chefs especially brought in to design the menu for the event.

Saudi chef Samira Jan was the mind behind the Sand of Zaatar booth, featuring flavors from the Levant region, including a Palestinian musakhan tart as well as a sweet Syrian basbousa tart.

Other Saudi-crafted creations included soft drinks and mixed mocktails at Al Bar booth.

One unique feature of “Souk Wonders” is the interactive performances from the actors of the who remained in character throughout whilst interacting with guests.

“Souk Wonders” will put on its final shows on Feb. 28 at 7:45 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. and then at 10:45 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. in Venue before coming to a close for Ramadan.

JEDDAH: DJ-producer Jamal Sul, aka Moving Still, was raised in Jeddah by a Saudi father and Irish mother, and his music combines both sides of his heritage.  

At 14, he moved to Dublin, a shift that shaped both his identity and musical journey. Now, after a decade in the industry, he’s making waves internationally. 

“For every song that I’ve ever recorded, I always try to embody an emotion—whether it’s unconditional love, fear or excitement,” he tells Arab News. “Most of the time, I never really get a chance to explain the emotion in a song — it just happens through people dancing.” 

The birth of his daughter last year profoundly influenced Sul’s latest EP, “Close to the Shams,” which will be released March 7. On it, he captures the intense emotions of parenthood and the quiet heartbeat of his child, which he used as inspiration. “The first time I got to hold my daughter in my own house, she was just sleeping on me and I had my earphones on. I could sense her heartbeat,” he says. “Weirdly, there’s a lot of studies about how your heart rate can influence your child’s and vice versa. So I feel like I captured that moment in song, and it was really nice.” 

 

 

 

 

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It was Sul’s mother who first got him into dance music, sparking his deep connection to house and disco beats. “I was very lucky that my mom was very, very into music,” he says. “I remember (her) cassettes, is like ‘Now 41’ or ‘Now 42’ — basically all the (chart toppers) for dance music. A lot of the stuff I make now is nearly resembling this era.” 

He also has a love for rock, inherited from his Irish uncles. “I listened to (Led) Zeppelin, Jimi (Hendrix), Korn, Slipknot, all those type of bands,” he says. “But even though I liked rock music, I still had this feeling towards dance music; it was kind of like a guilty pleasure, the same with pop music — like Backstreet Boys.” 

His father also shaped Sul’s diverse taste, being a fan of Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, as well as Arab artists. But Sul says his father’s relationship with music was complicated.  

“My father was in and out of music; either he loved it or hated it. And I don’t blame him; he had a very tough upbringing. His father was quite religious — he was an imam. So obviously (my father) was very torn between the life of what people would like in the West versus his actual life.” 

That’s not a struggle Sul has faced. Music is a constant in both his personal and professional life. He works in the field of immunology, and while his day job is rooted in science, music remains his own way of healing and expression. 

His sound spans genres, blending house, disco and Arabic influences. “When people ask what kind of music I make, it’s so hard to pinpoint,” he says. “It’s a mix of genres.” 

 

 

 

 

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His tracks have gained support from respected industry figures like Palms Trax, Hunee and Laurent Garnier, and he has performed at the likes of Boiler Room and Electric Picnic. Mixmag named him among its Ones to Watch for 2025. 

His first EP was “With Oud,” inspired not by the instrument at the heart of classical Arab music, but by the scent of the dark resin of the agar tree. “In order to write the music, I would put oud on my hands, just to experience that full memory of my granny’s house. I couldn’t believe that a smell could ignite that type of memory so quickly,” he says. The EP was a success, and spawned a follow-up, “Ouddy Bangers.” 

In 2024, Sul hosted ‘Sukar,’ an event of contemporary Arabic music. “I wanted to showcase our beautiful culture,” he says. He plans to take the idea further with Klub Sukar this April, inviting international acts to Ireland while providing opportunities for emerging artists — especially young Arabs. 

Sul’s moniker, Moving Still, was inspired by his hometown. “I used to love swimming and snorkeling and I used to see a lot of jellyfish there,” he says. “I remember my wife asking what I wanted to be called and I was, like, ‘Something about jellyfish really resonates with me, because it reminds me of Jeddah.’ I just really love that they’re moving all the time, but they almost look like they’re still. That’s what generated the name. I wanted to have something that was like a love letter to Jeddah.”