The Beiteddine Festival was founded in 1985, at the height of the civil war, by a group determined to keep the cultural life of Lebanon going through the violence. It has run nearly every year since (excluding pandemic and worst-conflict years) and is now one of the two great Lebanese summer arts events, alongside Baalbek.
Concerts and dance performances take place in the Dar al-Wasat courtyard of the palace, with the audience seated on rows of folding chairs in the open air under the floodlit arcades. International orchestras, Arab classical singers, ballet companies, and contemporary world-music acts all appear. Programmes go up in spring; tickets sell out for the bigger nights. Dates run from late June to early August.