Summer’s here! A snapshot of Jerusalem's warm-weather activities to enjoy

This year, the capital will hold its first Country Music Festival. Considered to be the most American music genre, country music actually has a wide fan base in Israel. Festivals have been held mainly in northern Israel, and there is a weekly country line-dancing event held at the First Station on Monday nights, which Anglos and Israeli country music lovers are invited to join.

Among the artists who will perform at the Country Music Festival is the Mottis Band, who will render powerful songs as played in the best honky-tonk clubs of Nashville and Austin. These includes songs by legends such as Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, and Willie Nelson. Also in the lineup is Folk Trio & The Gang, led by Bar-Hodis; and the Double D String Duo, composed of American David Gellman and his partner, Dima Rojavski, from Siberia!

The festival promises a night of heartfelt harmonies and honest storytelling, delivered through country music that has a timeless way of connecting people across generations.

Bring your dancing shoes and your cowboy hats and join the fun!

Specific locations included will be Majdal Shams; Kiryat Shmona; Kibbutz Kfar Blum; Tel Hai College; Ofakim; Kibbutz Urim; and Kibbutz Tze’elim. Unique content has been selected for each site to reflect the spirit of each community and what it has endured during the war.

Led by festival director Eyal Sher, under the artistic direction of Itay Mautner and Michal Vaeknin, this year’s festival aims to reflect the reality of living during a war, its content offering a fresh perspective through artistic creation.

The festival’s two opening performances will take place in an intimate amphitheater designed by artist Muhammad Abu Salama, which will be built under the open sky in the Jerusalem Theatre plaza.

The festival will begin with The Musicians, a musical performance as part of a social-music project born immediately after Oct. 7 that brings together young artists from the North to process and express their trauma through music. The musicians include Leah Shabat, Jane Bordeaux, Amir Lev, Shazammet, and Danielle Spector.

Other performances include Speeches Against Despair, a new concept by Gori Valfi and Eli Habib that gives a new interpretation to historical speeches; The Field of Al-Malaeb (The Pitch), a work by Raid Shams and Yonatan Blumenfeld focusing on childhood and memory, to be held on the damaged soccer field of Majdal Shams; On the Way Home, a performative Talmud lesson by Chaya Gilboa featuring Maya Belzitzman, Orit Tshoma, Daniel Engel, and Liat Atzili; Ichui, an autobiographical dance creation by dancer and creator Gal Gorpong, following the struggle of living with a rare form of cancer; and Father’s Daughter, a new play written and performed by actress Neta Spiegelman, addressing her relationship with her father.

At the event, which will run from early to mid-August at the foot of the Old City and the Tower of David, Jerusalemites are invited to enjoy 11 days of an innovative artistic experience centered around Israeli art, diverse music, and food.

2025 marks the beginning of a new initiative, where the festival will center around a raw material chosen as the artistic theme that will be reflected through its diverse artwork, performances, and activities. This year’s chosen raw material is wood, one of the oldest and most essential materials in human culture, which symbolizes the building of roots, community, and renewal – concepts that connect to Jerusalem and the Israeli creative spirit, especially during wartime.

The festival will emphasize the issues of sustainability, and how to use wood in art. In line with the chosen theme, there will be a special project focused on restoring the capital’s burned forest areas, as well as a performance called “Tree of Life: expressing the forces of rebirth and renewal.”

Wood will be incorporated into all the artwork of Israel’s premier artists, displayed in more than 80 art stalls throughout the festival in a variety of creative fields, such as painting, ceramics, goldsmithing, weaving, and Judaica.

This year there will also be a “family area” opening at 5 p.m., where families can enjoy creative workshops, mazes, games, a puppet theater, and a variety of other activities aimed at all ages, all inspired by the world of wood.

As part of the festival, families will be invited to continue their entertainment at cultural institutions throughout the city, at no additional cost and in a festive atmosphere.

There will also be a culinary complex featuring a wide variety of kosher street food stalls to suit everyone’s palate.

Alongside the art and culinary stalls, the festival will host a line-up of performances by some of Israel’s top musical artists on the Hutzot Hayotzer stage in the Sultan’s Pool. These include Aviv Gefen, Moshe Peretz, Shweki, Amir Dadon, Yehuda Poliker, Ehud Banai, Miri Mesika, and Keren Peles.

I love going to different events and discovering new things to do. This summer, I plan to attend the Jerusalem Festival of Light, where light installations by some of Israel’s leading light artists will illuminate the walls of the Old City, complemented by onstage and street performances. The festival will be open for a week in mid-June from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., except Friday night. Entrance to the festival is free.

I also enjoy going to the Jerusalem Film Festival, which will be running this year from July 17-27. Held annually at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the film festival has become a popular event on the cultural scene for filmmakers and enthusiasts, where a selection of diverse Israeli and international films and documentaries in a variety of genres are screened. As a movie enthusiast, I enjoy attending this festival every summer and learning about various cultures through film.

And as a foodie, I relish going to Jerusalem’s Food Truck Festival, which is held every summer on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, and sampling delights from the wide array of food stands offering fare from some of the capital’s top restaurants.