Can you tell us a bit about how and why you started Habibi Hafla, and what are the sorts of events you’ve run so far?

I started Habibi Hafla in 2020. The first event was meant to be a Valentine’s Day night focused on Arabic classics around love and longing, but the pandemic shifted everything – the date, the format, the approach.

The idea really came from a party I played in New York called Yalla! It made me realise there wasn’t anything in Melbourne that was publicly celebrating Arabic music in that way. I’d grown up around this music in private settings – weddings, family gatherings – and I wanted to bring that energy into spaces that wouldn’t traditionally host it. Essentially, bringing a Lebanese wedding into a bar or club. Section 8 [in Melbourne CBD] was the first venue that backed it, and it’s grown from there.

The events themselves are quite fluid. Sometimes it’s DJ-led, sometimes it includes live bands, dancers, drummers, or guest chef pop-ups. It’s always about building a full environment rather than just a lineup. We’ve also used the platform for fundraisers for Lebanon and Palestine, and worked with different promoters and collectives – from supporting Omar Souleyman shows to collaborating with Habibi Funk on their first tour here.

Over time, it’s expanded into different formats and spaces – from clubs like The Toff, to rooftops, to more cultural and outdoor settings. A big moment was taking over A1 Bakery during Brunswick Music Festival and turning it into a live music space for the first time – that felt very aligned with the original idea of shifting context. From there, projects like Golden Threads built that out further into a full-scale, open-air program.

At its core, Habibi Hafla is about creating space for Arabic and SWANA music and culture to exist fully – not as a niche or add-on, but as something central. It’s about diasporic expression, but also about inviting people in, making it accessible, and building connection through music, food and shared experience.

How will Mousiqa Bil Madina at Fed Square this Saturday 9 May differ from previous events you’ve run? What can people expect?

Mousiqa Bil Madina is taking what I usually do in clubs and venues and placing it into a public, open setting at Fed Square.

A lot of my past events have been late-night, dancefloor-focused. It’s not really a front-on, stand-and-watch kind of program. You can move through it – catch a performance, sit down for tea, play backgammon, step into a dance circle. It’s meant to feel social and lived-in, closer to how these sounds and traditions exist in real life.

For me, it’s about bringing things that are usually experienced in private or within community into a public space, and doing it properly – with care, with context, and without flattening it into just “entertainment”.

In addition to running Habibi Hafla, you’re a sought-after DJ, you run a regular radio show on PBS each week, and also are the curator of the Brunswick Music Festival – impressive! How do you manage it? Have you got a regular team as part of Habibi Hafla that you work with to put on events like Mousiqa Bil Madina?

I’ve been doing this long enough that the different parts don’t feel separate anymore – DJing, radio, and programming all feed into each other. The radio show is where I discover and test music, DJing is where I understand what actually works on a dancefloor, and programming is about shaping that into a broader experience. It’s less about “managing” everything and more about staying in a consistent rhythm.

In terms of structure, Habibi Hafla isn’t a fixed team in the traditional sense. It’s more of a trusted network that I pull in depending on the project – producers, artists, technicians, community collaborators. For something like Mousiqa Bil Madina at Fed Square, that expands quite a bit because you’re working at scale and in a public space, so there are more layers – production, logistics, cultural consultation, artist coordination.

I tend to work with people who understand the intention behind the work, not just the task. That’s important, because these events sit across music, culture, and community – you need people who can move between those spaces without losing the integrity of it.

So yeah, it’s a lot, but it’s also quite fluid. It’s built on long-term relationships, a strong network, and being clear about the vision so everyone’s aligned when we’re putting something together.

What are some of the highlights people can look forward to at Mousiqa Bil Madina?

There are a lot of highlights, but it really depends on how you move through the space – everyone will take something different from it.

Some people will come and go straight to the food and drinks, others might just want to sit with a tea and play backgammon, and some will lock into the music program from start to finish.

You might catch a live band, step into a dabke circle, or come across a zaffe [traditional Arab wedding procession] moving through the crowd. Getting a photo with Ayman at Studio Kaake is one for the memories, and the workshops with Dukkana mean people can actually make or take something home with them. Supporting the local artists and stalls is a big part of it too.

It’s not really designed as “here are the key moments” – the whole thing has been curated as a continuous experience. The highlight is how it all sits together, and how you choose to move through it.

Have you got a top pick for food or snack that you’d recommend people trying?

Eat all the things, drink all the drinks. Move between vendors, take your time, and pick something new – that’s the best way to experience it.

The food lineup has been curated so you can move between savoury and sweet. We’ve got A1 Bakery, Afiouni, Kaneffi and Mama Gozleme, plus O’Kahve serving traditional tea and coffee – so you can really settle in and work your way through it.

Anything else people can look forward to?

It’s really about offering an authentic cultural experience – not a surface-level version of it.

The program brings together practices, sounds, and traditions in a way that reflects how they actually exist – from the music and dance to the food, language, and social rituals around it. It’s not staged as a spectacle, it’s grounded in lived experience.

For many people, it’ll feel familiar. For others, it’s a chance to experience it properly – with context, care, and a level of detail you don’t always get in a festival setting.

What are your hopes for Mousiqa Bil Madina?      

I hope people enjoy themselves, first and foremost – and that they leave remembering how good it felt to be there.

There are so many small moments built into the day where memories can happen: learning dabke or bellydance, trying something you’ve never eaten before, getting henna done, having your photo taken, joining a workshop, picking something up from the mini-market, or sitting down to play backgammon – maybe even learning for the first time.

These are things many of us have grown up with. They’re familiar, everyday cultural moments. What I’ve done is open that up so people can step into it informally – not as a performance to watch, but as something to be part of.

Mousiqa Bil Madina will be held at Fed Square on Saturday 9 May from 3pm until 7pm. The event is presented by Fed Square and Habibi Hafla.