Funding Under Fire: How Scenes Survive When Systems Fail

Speakers: Tala Mortada (SceneNoice), Garik Pledov, Yazan Khalili Moderator: Tom Frost (Crack Magazine) As public funding and traditional revenue streams come under increasing pressure, this panel looks at how music scenes and grassroots organisations are finding new ways to survive and support their communities when formal systems fail – from community-driven fundraising and mutual aid, to digital infrastructure that doubles as cultural preservation. Panelists bring examples from Kyiv, where festival teams unite artists around large-scale fundraising campaigns while building trust through niche community curators; from Ramallah, where community radio has become both a fundraising channel and an act of cultural preservation during recent escalations; and from Beirut, where venues have operated as sites of explicit political and social responsibility, running community programs through periods of crisis.

MENA artists to support: Tala Mortada

Line-up: Garik Pledov (Brudnyi Pes & Polygon Records, Founder, UA) / Tala Mortada (Factory People, LB) / Thomas Frost (Crack Industies Ltd, GB) / Yazan Khalili