First-of-its-kind festival will feature educational and entertainment events to celebrate NFT culture and community in the Middle East DUBAI: Arts DAO, a NFT and Web3 community in the Middle East, will host one of the region’s first Web3 festivals next month in Dubai. Anas Bhurtun, co-founder of Arts DAO, believes the Middle East is the “center of global talent,” and an ideal location to bring global industry experts and leaders together. “There is a massively untapped talent pool across the Middle East,” he told Arab News. “For example, we are already seeing how Dubai wants to build the Silicon Valley of Web3 and how in Saudi Arabia there is a huge amount of talented youth building amazing companies, and this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. The festival is built around three core pillars — community, culture and creation, which represent the decentralization and blending of the physical and digital worlds. The goal of the festival is to celebrate NFT and Internet culture, the company said. It will serve as a platform for companies to share their knowledge on the future of blockchain, NFTs and decentralized payments, as well as provide networking opportunities for developers, business owners and investors. Beyond education and knowledge-sharing, Arts DAO aims for the festival to be a true celebration of NFT culture and community through activities such as digital fashion and art, avatars, live NFT activations, art installations, live NFT minting and metaverse experiences. Featuring live music, DJ sets and other entertainment, the festival will also host a shared virtual environment, which will provide guests with virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, as well as meta-cultural collectibles and a bespoke shoe customization area. The region has “made significant advancements in recent years to establish itself as a major center for the creation, use, and adoption of Web3 technologies,” Danosch Zahedi, co-founder of Arts DAO, told Arab News. The young GenZ and millennial populations in Saudi Arabia, for example, love collectible items, and are already interested in “Web3 experiences, education and culture,” he said. This means the region is “well-positioned to become a prominent worldwide market for blockchain-based, and other next-generation, web technologies, mostly due to local audiences’ dedication to technology and innovation.” Arts DAO Fest will take place on March 11 at the 25H Hotel in Dubai.