Visitors explore a cultural exhibit with vibrant posters, artifacts, and Arabic text. A child and adults listen intently with headphones

Palestinian Sound Archive: Listening Session

Join us for the closing event of the Palestinian Sound Archive exhibition, an immersive archival session with Mo’min Swaitat of Majazz Project.

More details for Blue Side Foyer, Level 4, Royal Festival Hall

This event has passed

Jump to sections on this page

Jump to
Overview
Times & tickets
For your visit

This event explores archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance, through sharing archival sounds and images that preserve and document Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance.

This listening session features sounds from the Majazz Project, Palestinian Sound Archive and friends, with merchandise on sale to support the project.

Palestinian Sound Archive is a celebration of music, spoken word and album artwork from historic Palestine, mainly from the 1960s to 1990s. It is part of Majazz Project, a Palestinian-led record label and research platform founded by Mo’min Swaitat in 2020.

Over several years, Swaitat amassed an extensive archive of cassettes, reels and vinyl records from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs and jazz. Join us on the final weekend of the exhibition to delve a little deeper into the collection.

Palestinian Sound Archive was born out of the archive and is focused on sampling, remixing and reissuing vintage Palestinian and Arab albums.

Swaitat comes from a long line of Bedouin musicians and storytellers, and the archive references his rootedness in music as a means of celebrating one’s culture and sense of belonging.

Need to know

Age guidance

For ages 14+

Event information

This event will take place in the Blue Bar, Level 4.

Please visit the Archive Studio on level 2 before or after joining the listening session.

For your visit

This event is held at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

The Royal Festival Hall is open six days a week.

Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.

A concrete building with flags on the roof, with the London Eye and Big Ben in the background

A lively crowd cheers with raised hands, while a performer in a white hat and suit plays guitar, against red lighting.

A guitarist performing on a dark stage at the Royal Festival Hall, lit up by multiple spotlights.

Pianis Víkingur Ólafsson is seated at a grand piano while playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the stage of Royal Festival Hall

Organist Carol Williams plays the Royal Festival Hall organ whiich is illumiated with bold colours

The Royal Festival Hall is home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.

Getting here

Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.

The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.

We’re cash-free

Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.

We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.

All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.

All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.

On Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace. You can grab a coffee and a slice of freshly made cake from our Ballroom Cafe. Or alternatively enjoy destination dining in the restaurant at Skylon.

From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.

Other places to eat and drink whilst you’re here