Dugsi Dayz @ Edinburgh Fringe 2023

Dugsi Dayz sees four students find themselves stuck in Islamic school detention. An hour of subverted folktales, featuring hilarious cultural idioms as well as heavy-hitting discussions, unveils the beauty and joy of friendship between Somali girls.

Dugsi Dayz was amazing, laughed my head off the whole way through and left feeling so uplifted, inspired and wholesome @sideye-prods amazing acting and script; just so beautiful to see black muslim existing w/o politicisation = bonus point for the free shani - Nadene 2023

I'm still remembering random lines from Dugsi Dayz and laughing to myself, what an experience man - Adna 2022

Debuted at Somali Week Festival 2022, Dugsi Dayz returned to London’s Rich Mix for four more sellout performances in January 2023, and the show has gone on to win Underbelly & New Diorama Untapped Award, supported by Concord Theatricals, in partnership with Nouveau Riche. The award has meant that the show can go on to reach more audiences than ever at the largest arts festival in the world - Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Whilst this is such a huge achievement and includes £10,000 to support the four-week run, our performing cost far exceeds this.

We are turning to you - our community - to support us on this journey. We need to raise additional money for:

Accommodation

Transport

Living expenses

Not only are we in an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis but accommodation in Edinburgh during festival season far exceeds our budget. It is often these high costs which price out the most marginalised artists, who are simply unable to take the financial risk of performing in Edinburgh. While we have some funding, the cost of performing far surpasses what we have to hand. Landlords,ey!

We are a group of primarily Black women from working-class backgrounds, with many in our team sacrificing their shift work and income in order to chase this dream - we will be taking a financial risk on this show. Please help provide us with a greater sense of security while we continue to develop, create and perform this brilliant show.

Every donation - your support - will make a massive difference. Your generous contribution will be supporting a collective of early-career artists to strive for bigger and better work. You will be advocating for a team of primarily working-class Black Muslim women artists and creatives. You will be supporting the development of stories centred on Black Muslim women’s joy and experiences told by us with nuance and care at their heart.

We have already received an unimaginable outpouring of support from Somalis and the wider Muslim community with Dugsi Dayz - from our excellent reviews on Twitter to our press coverage by The Guardian and Amaliah. We’re incredibly touched that our work has been so well-received by our community and beyond. The Edinburgh Untapped Award has opened many doors for us to make the much-loved show bigger and better - any financial support we receive from you will help us capitalise on this career-defining moment.

We want to bring you on our journey with the show, and we’ll be sharing regular progress through our socials which you can find here.