With the highly anticipated holiday ahead after this very special month of Ramadan, there is much to celebrate and many reasons to get outdoors this June. Check out the wide variety of events held by the expat community in Istanbul that will have you doing good, learning more and even dancing this month.

İftar for Community for Ramadan

Yabangee and Istanbul&I will be bringing a meaningful close to the month of May by teaming up to host an "İftar for Community," which will be held on Friday evening, May 31 at Sururi Park in Kasımpaşa. On Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the holy month of Ramadan, Istanbul&I has been holding their "İftar&Community" program, which organizes activities for underprivileged children followed by the fast-breaking iftar dinner for families and communities in Tarlabaşı, Kasımpaşa. Regardless of nationality or religion, all are welcome to take part and volunteer in this event series and this Friday, members from the Yabangee community will be taking part. This is a unique opportunity to give back while getting the chance to experience a shared iftar meal during the holy month. Attendants are asked to register from the Facebook event page and are also encouraged to bring toys and gifts they may want to donate to the children.


Yabangee and Istanbul&I is set to hold an iftar event today.

Istanbul&I is a social youth volunteer organization with over 100 members from 60 different countries. In addition to hosting speaking clubs in three different languages and holding poetry and book clubs, they also organize different seminars and talk series, all of which are held in their center in Karaköy. Coming up this month will be a talk on artificial intelligence (AI), which will be held on Friday, June 14 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will be a two-hour seminar introducing AI and discussing future predictions, which will be led by Ammar Omar, a robotics specialist from Jordan.

Istanbul&I also holds a monthly "Self-Care Workshop," which is a meditation and mindfulness workshop on the third Sunday of each month, with June's edition being held on Sunday, June 16. Led by Paz Paulsen-Sacks, in the thread of zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, this event starts at 4 p.m. and takes place at the Istanbul&I center in Karaköy.

The Nevizade Street Party

Yabangee is a volunteer-run website and community for foreigners in Istanbul. In addition to teaming up with Istanbul&I for iftar, they also have a variety of monthly event series themselves, such as their "Dead End Street Sessions" electronic music night coming up this Saturday, June 1 at Citizen in Asmalı Mescit. Every Thursday, they will also hold a student night at Beat in Beyoğlu this month.

On the Friday and Saturday evenings of June 14 and 15, Yabangee will also be co-organizing a special "Street Party" devoted to Beyoğlu's historical Nevizade area that will be held at Sanat Performance, an open-air venue in the heart of the neighborhood. This "Street Party" will have dance workshops, shows and DJ performances all weekend long, and the Yabangee community will be out there contributing to the celebrations. Fill out their Facebook event page form for a chance to win free tickets.

Tidy Turkey heads to Burgazada

Tidy Turkey is a community and blog spearheaded by Australian expat Lucy Tooze with a combination of members from Istanbul's expat community and locals that are devoted to cleaning up litter from areas of interest throughout the city. Tidy Turkey hosts regular cleanup events, in which people gather to pick up trash and then get together at a venue to celebrate their success. This month will be a very special edition because in addition to clearing trash from beautiful Burgazada, which is the third largest of the Princes' Islands in Istanbul's Marmara Sea, they will also be attending the opening party and design market that will be held at Cennet Bahçesi on Saturday, June 15. The meet up will be at noon at the ferry port on Burgazada, which is regularly served by ferries departing from ports all over the city. Cennet Bahçesi is a historical music and dance venue right on the shore of Burgazada that hosts musical events all summer long, many of which are organized by Taner Öngür, the bass player for Turkey's legendary Anatolian rock group Moğollar, who will also be performing that night. The opening party will be taking place from 10 a.m. to midnight and will also showcase up-and-coming designers at the design market.

Pop-Up Dinners Istanbul

On Saturday, June 15, Pop-Up Dinners Istanbul will be hosting "The Peranakan Pop-Up," which will be devoted to this fusion of Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese cuisine. Run by Kay, a Singaporean-Dutch expat and former restaurateur from her home in Cihangir, the gourmet meals served by Pop-Up Dinners Istanbul are always in high demand.