The Saimum Shilpi Gosthi has announced a four-day cultural festival, “July Awakening (Season 2),” themed “July Through Children’s Eyes,” to mark the second anniversary of the July uprising. It will run from August 1 to 4 at the Bangladesh National Museum in Shahbagh, Dhaka.
The festival will remember the children killed in the July uprising and present their sacrifice through art and culture, alongside film screenings, drama, recitation, special exhibitions, cultural programs and activities for children. The organizers announced the festival at a news conference on Friday.
The Saimum Shilpi Gosthi said it was everyone’s duty to present the martyred children’s sacrifice to the nation and preserve their memory for future generations, and that the theme would portray the uprising’s spirit and the children’s dreams, fears, courage and sacrifice through art.
Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir secretary general Sibgatullah Sibga said the first-anniversary “36 July Cultural Fest – July Awakening,” held at Suhrawardy Udyan in 2025, had drawn large crowds, and that this year’s event would be held on a bigger scale at the National Museum.
The four-day festival will feature films, documentaries and docufilms on the July movement, stage plays, recitation, an “Ayna Ghar” exhibition on secret detention, a kids’ zone, daily cultural programs, a miniature zone of historic protest sites, a memorial corner, a “July bioscope,” an exhibition on the destruction, a “Bakhtiyar to July” exhibition, a caricature corner, a publications stall and a special exhibition in memory of 133 martyred children.
The festival will run in three daily sessions: films and documentaries from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; reminiscences by martyrs’ families, injured protesters and invited guests until the evening; and performances by national artists, cultural groups and children, along with stage plays, from evening until 9 p.m. Government officials, cultural figures, artists, journalists, politicians, clerics, social workers, martyrs’ families and injured protesters are expected to attend.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report