The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

The Easter break is almost here, but while many of us prepare for a long weekend of sun, sea and sand, and countdown the minutes, Cairo is still very much alive and there are plenty of events to dive headfirst into this weekend.

Music is in order on Thursday, starting at Cairo Jazz Club, where local bands, Khayal and El Dor El Awal, make the line-up, while, Salalem perform at After Eight in Downtown Cairo. Elsewhere, acoustic ace, Shady Ahmed, returns to Garden City’s ROOM Art Space and electronic music is aplenty, with some of the highlight parties coming courtesy of the Garden Nile Front, where Akladios takes to the decks, it’s sister venue, the Garden in Korba, where DJ Feedo brings his hip-hop and r&b sets for this week’s Motion. Meanwhile, DJ Fuzzy & Ayman Nageeb are back at Le Duplex at Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah.

Back in Downtown, Zigzag kicks off the weekend with Minus T and Aroussi, while over in New Cairo, this week’s edition of House Station sees Bus Stop welcome dynamic duo, Aguizi & Fahim.

Away from music, El Sawy Culturewheel hosts a special night of stand-up comedy and with D-CAF coming to a close for another year, the festival seems to have left the best till last with interactive show, DieSpace, at Falaki Theatre.

Things begin nice and early on Friday thanks to Nacelle, who host another edition of the all-day festival that is Funk N Pop at Royal Club Mohamed-Aly, while, down the Nile at the Temple in Giza, the Blurr 100% Series returns, with a line-up that includes UNER, Rodrguez Jr., Abou Samra, Misty and Marc Wahba. There’s more fun in the sun over at the Garden, meanwhile, with the Korba bar welcoming one and all for music and brunch with Fridaze.

One of the more unique events this weekend, however, is set to take place at Swiss Club Cairo; the 2nd Cairo Clothes Swap invites Cairenes to bring their old clothes, shoes and accessories and, well, swap them with others.

Later on in the evening, the Tap East in New Cairo welcomes sibling duo, Gawdat, for a night of deep and tech house, while more tech can be found at Cairo Jazz Club, where local DJs, Sebzz and Baher, take to the decks. Elsewhere, this week’s edition of Riverdeep sees Zamalek’s Riverside host DJ SHawky, while live music comes courtesy of unique Sudanese singer, Asia Madani, who performs at ROOM Art Space, and Basheer who brings his unique Nubian-infused music to After Eight.

Saturdays are usually quiet across Cairo, but not at Darb 1718 this weekend. The cultural hub is set to launch new, unique music series, Fel Mix, which sees local bands performing each other’s songs on nights that bring fun to music, with the inaugural edition set to host Hawas and Meshwar.

Elsewhere on the last day of the weekend, indie darling, Osama El Hady, performs a special gig at Cairo Jazz Club to mark the release of a new album, while Gŭ Ba welcomes Mahmoud El Leithy for another Heshek Beshek.

Elsewhere, award-winning musician, Fathy Salama, takes to the stage at Cairo Opera House  and El Dor El Awal perform at El Sawy Culturewheel, while Tamer ‘The Guvna’ Emad winds down the weekend at the Tap in Maadi with an acoustic set and New Cairo’s Bus Stop does likewise with some oldies courtesy of DJ Mash.

These are just a few of the events taking place across Cairo this weekend – check out the Cairo 360 events calendar for more!