From 31 October to 2 November, East London’s Rich Mix hosts Vaak Festival, a three-day platform for contemporary art and music from Persian-language communities across Iran, Afghanistan and the diaspora. The programme brings together music, film, fashion and workshops, turning the venue into a meeting ground for experimentation and cross-cultural dialogue.
Now in its fourth edition, the festival is organised by Vaak Records, a London-based label and collective founded by Iranian musicians and producers. The name vaak means “vibrations of vocal cords,” a reminder that all art here begins with voice. Vaak supports artists across Iran, Afghanistan and the wider SWANA region, producing releases, curating live projects and enabling connections between tradition and experiment. The label’s commitment is to independent voices: to help them create, grow, and reach wider audiences.
The music programme opens on Friday 31 October with Bamdad Afshar & Otagh Band, a Tehran-formed ensemble led by composer and sound designer Bamdad Afshar. Known for experimental film scores and installations, Afshar constructs performances that merge live musicianship with programmed machines, Persian verse, and robotic instruments built in his own studio. The group’s evolving sound structure reflects a city in transformation, blending rock and electronic forms with the cadence of classical Persian poetry.
Day two introduces DoBaRe, the partnership of poet-performer Khatereh Hakimi and composer Ehsan Goodarzi. Their set combines recited text, electronic sound design and visual elements, exploring personal histories of displacement through a language rooted in Persian literature. Works such as “The Poet With a Gun” and “Safarnak” operate at the border of concert and performance art, using minimal rhythm and cinematic pacing to build tension and intimacy.
The final evening belongs to Mahtab Qala featuring Elaha Soroor, the Afghan-British singer named among BBC’s 100 Women in 2024 for her activism and the protest song Naan, Kar, Azadi! (“Bread, Work, Freedom!”). With Sulaiman Haqpana on tabla and Giuliano Modarelli on guitar, Mahtab Qala reconstructs the sound of Kabul’s celebration halls, where women’s voices once carried over rhythms of attan and folk dance. Soroor’s singing links that memory to a broader story of exile and resilience, turning communal music into political statement.
Around the concerts, the broader festival builds a portrait of Persian-language creativity in motion. Voices in Iranian Fashion, running all weekend, presents independent designers redefining Iranian aesthetics outside state and commercial constraints. Curated by the Vaak Collective, it features Fractal, Totem Design, Aan, Bahar Studio, and focuses on Zarghovargh and itsyouofficiall, two Tehran-born labels that emerged from the city’s underground scene. Their work merges performance, sustainability and self-expression, framing fashion as a language of autonomy.
Cinema anchors each evening with three striking perspectives from Iranian and Afghan filmmakers. In the Land of Brothers (Fri 31 Oct, 5:45PM) by Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi, winner of the Sundance 2024 Directing Award, follows an Afghan refugee family’s fragile life in Iran. Woman and Child (Sat 1 Nov, 5:30PM) by Saeed Roustaee tells of motherhood and justice under social pressure, while Mosaffa’s Absence (Sun 2 Nov, 5:00PM) closes the screenings with a meditative reflection on identity across Tehran and Prague.
Workshops further expand the conversation. On Saturday, celebrated Iranian actor-director Ali Mosaffa leads Finding Your Own Cinema (1:00PM), a sold-out session exploring independent filmmaking and artistic integrity, drawing on his acclaimed features The Last Step and What’s the Time in Your World. On Sunday, Leila Pourshaban and Nazanin Fatahi, founders of Zargh-o-vargh, host From Creativity to Independence (1:00PM), guiding participants through fashion as a form of personal empowerment and creative survival.
Rich Mix’s long commitment to diasporic and experimental arts makes it a natural home for Vaak’s cross-disciplinary mission: to document how Persian-language artists continue to invent new spaces for expression. Vaak Festival stands as a live exchange between artists shaping how contemporary Persian creativity is seen, heard and understood today.
Tickets for Vaak Festival 2025 are now on sale. Secure yours HERE