Our
MISSION

The Flying Carpet Children Festival is a learning platform for artists and children, alike, to create a harmonious experience through music, light, beauty, and truth.

Cultural and artistic opportunities in modern societies form a large portion of social activities and are available to the citizens of those countries on a massive scale. However, the problems that such societies are mostly suffering from on a global scale such as terrorism, violence and delinquencies come from societies where cultural opportunities and exposure to beauty is rare to non-existent. Therefore, it is necessary for more privileged communities to invest in the cultural activities of deprived societies in order to educate and generate productive members for the world.

 Children are the future of every community and by investing in their education and in their access to beauty and light, we are moving towards a brighter future on a global scale. Our carpet, as a portable platform, flies to the most disadvantaged regions of the world in order to engage and connect with the most disadvantaged youth of every community. We engage them in artistic process, which in our opinion functions as spiritual healing for those who have experienced darkness and horrendous incidents and are dealing with unimaginable challenges in life.

Carpet riders

We create a cultural experience consisting of various workshops and performances through the festival week for the most in need.

Every year, the Flying Carpet Children Festival gathers and hosts around 40-50 composers, performers, circus artists, dancers, multidisciplinary artists and designers in order to create the most magical experience possible through a two-week residency in the city of Mardin. The collective performs in cities and remote villages in southeast Turkey, where cultural and educational opportunities for children are scarce.

 The artists are curated and chosen by festival founder Sahba Aminikia and Sirkhane founder, Pinar Demiral, through an open call on social media and on various websites. The festival lasts throughout the entire summer, holding hundreds of workshops and the most innovative educational experiences, incorporating technology, art, music and circus. The last two weeks of the festival are dedicated to preparing for one week of performances throughout the region during the last week. After artists’ arrival, they are paired and assigned to one another and to local child artists in order to form artistic collaborations and enrich their performances and their art. The performances are put into a unified context through storytelling techniques and will be taken to remote locations as one unified production. 

THE
CHILDREN

Flying carpet is for everyone, but especially the children. We believe that children growing up in the most difficult circumstances are the most inspired to bring change to their surroundings. We invest in the most vulnerable children in one of the most difficult regions of the world to be a child. We collaborate with children in order to  experience and develop a creative process which can provide every child with unlimited opportunities and methods of expression in the most meaningful way possible. We provide children with many artistic solutions to life, not necessarily to create a artists out of them but simply to provide them with creative methods to express their own story and feelings without being directly exposed to their audience and to their surroundings. 

The Flying Carpet Festival aims to address this oversight by providing artistic, cultural and educational opportunities to vulnerable children and youth. Our artistic programming and performances center the languages, stories, and spiritualities of the communities in which we work. As a result, we make the arts relevant and legible to all members of society, regardless of age or socioeconomic background. With this integrated and accessible approach, the Flying Carpet Festival includes the people who are so often left behind.

MARDIN,
TURKEY

The province of Mardin, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in historic Mesopotamia, is one of the oldest settled regions in the world. Its rich history includes early settlers such as the Hurrians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Persians. The Syrian civil war is an ongoing conflict that has displaced millions of people. Due to its proximity, Turkey is a primary destination for refugees, and it hosts more than four million refugees, the highest number in the world. More than 3.6 million of these refugees are registered Syrians, in addition to nearly 400,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. Over 1.7 million of these refugees are children.

Mardin has played a crucial role in hosting these refugees. As a city near the Syrian border known for its diversity and hospitality, Mardin has become a significant refuge for Syrians fleeing the ongoing civil war. The influx of Syrian refugees into Mardin began soon after the conflict erupted. Initially, refugees were housed in camps set up by the Turkish government and international organizations. Over time, many moved into urban areas seeking better living conditions and opportunities. This population increase has brought both challenges and opportunities to Mardin’s already struggling local community.

OUR TEAM

Flying Carpet founder, Sahba Aminikia, and our team of visionaries are creating a festival to engage and educate children and adults through a curated experience of music, beauty, and light.