Exist is a festival and event series founded in Palestine, with the aim of building bridges between artists, musicians, DJs and curators from Palestine and across the globe. Its broad, transnational family are united in a desire to use art to impact their environments in critical ways, and through their engagement with anti-colonialism in the context of Palestine and beyond. Originally founded in 2019 by Odai Masri, Exist has since taken place as an ephemeral but impactful meeting point for musicians and artists who care for the Palestinian cause, and manifest this care in how they love one another. We've listened to our music, grown our family and danced together for hours in Ramallah, Amman, Beirut, Athens, Oslo and Berlin; now we've invited our collective to grace Cafe Oto and The Yard in London. The festival now defines itself as a growing family of siege-breakers who refuse to let Palestinian artists confront injustice alone. Exist is proud to bring together film, talks, music, performance, and dance events from underground veterans such as Choronzon and Drew McDowall as well as super powerful Exist heads like Kujo and Dirar Kalash.

On Friday the 30th of June 2023, Odai Masri aka Oddz, the founder of the festival suddenly passed away, leaving us with an abundant and deep conviction of what a generous ancestor can do for us.

We owe Odai the vision and groundwork for the accomplishments of this festival, its tightly knit network, and most importantly, we owe him our ethos of marrying uncompromising sound curation with uncompromising caregiving. He insisted on queering Palestinian narratives while resisting victimhood by acting as one another's care structures. This edition acts as a moment to remember him gracefully and extend gratitude for the time we were lucky to share with him. We invite our audience to act as carriers for these memories which we are so privileged to be able to keep with us. Exist is Odai's legacy, and we insist on keeping it strong, fearless and bound by love.

This festival is generously funded by the following parties:

Tony Tremlett
Laure Genillard
DRTCO

Other People Imprint

Poster design by Revant Dasgupta (@head_on_stick)