By When talking, reading and writing about Palestine, there is almost always one subject overshadowing everything else: the occupation. Living in the West Bank every day is a reminder of the restrictions put on the Palestinians by the Israeli government. Once in a while, however, it is possible to forget, if only for a moment, the occupation that affects almost every minute of a Palestinian’s life.

While the past couple of weeks have seen a rise in settler violence, the burning of mosques and destruction of olive trees, this is not all the month of October had to offer in the West Bank. The delicious Palestinian food, the beautiful nature and not least of all the rich Palestinian culture is often pushed into the background, overshadowed by the politicization of everyday life here.

I appreciate every opportunity I get to get out of the noisy, trash-littered Ramallah and experience other aspects of life in Palestine.

Last weekend the 10 days-long Vertical Gardening/Carpet festival in Dura Al Kara came to an end. I arrived at the festival during a one-man story telling/theatre performance that drew in a considerable crowd. Surrounded by spectators on all sides, a charismatic young man told a dramatic story using only his voice with the immediate surroundings as his stage. To be honest, my Arabic is not yet at a level that allows me to understand what the story was about, but nonetheless, I became completely immersed just like everyone else listening.

Small as it is, the Dura festival has much to offer whether you attend for an hour, a day or for the whole ten days. Situated in a valley between Birzeit and the Israeli settlement of Beit El, the village of Dura is blessed with fertile soil and a natural water supply. This is where the festival that combines nature and culture takes place. The program, filled with workshops and activities around gardening and culture, includes highlights such as open air movie screenings, land art workshops, green house construction, concerts, yoga, lessons in compost technique and ping pong tournaments.

Another great event in the beginning of the month was the Taybeh October Festival. It is organized by the community around the Taybeh brewery and the Taybeh municipality, and inspired by (though very different from) the German Octoberfest tradition. The small village of Taybeh comes alive for one weekend a year as hundreds of tourists and locals alike come to take part in the annual festival. Maybe even more important than the beer, the festival includes a wide range of cultural and entertainment activities, concerts and dance performances.

The beauty of events like these is how it brings people together in a way far from the sometimes violent reality they live in. Celebrating Palestinian culture, agriculture and local production, people come from all over the world to attend.

Still, no matter how peaceful the festivals may be, just like everything else in Palestine, they are also affected by the occupation. The close proximity to Israeli settlements for some of these locations has caused problems during the otherwise nonviolent and joyful events. This year, at the Vertical gardening/Carpet festival, the organizers were the target of an attack from Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Beit El.

A small group of teenage settlers threw stones at the people attending the festival from a hilltop. Later on the same day they where once again approached by settlers, this time carrying teargas and guns.

All this comes to show that in this unpredictable situation, you can for a moment be completely drawn in by a performance, by the beauty of the Palestinian culture and nature while in the next moment reality hits hard, rock hard. Escaping the realities of living under occupation is almost impossible, but that makes events that embrace peaceful existence and solidarity with Palestinian culture and agriculture even more important.