For well over a decade now, Yabangee has served as Istanbul’s very own expat community platform, with a website providing valuable resources such as doling out advice and reviews as well as organizing a number of tailor-made and holiday events geared toward English speakers, expats, visitors or what not. But, in addition to hosting regular language clubs, the Expat Spotlight seminar series and weekly karaoke and holiday parties, their English language Trivia Night Series and Halloween parties are celebrating significant anniversaries this month in parties coming up this week.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Tarık and Tuğrul of Yabangee to learn more about their upcoming events and ask them what has been going on with this long-standing platform for the international community. “We, of course, continue to maintain our website, which has over 3,000 volunteer-contributed articles on life in Türkiye. We also continue to host events and offer other methods of community building with the hope that it allow our international audience to assimilate here and make local friends and connections. Aside from that, we’re trying out different things here and there with a couple of exciting projects in the works.”
Until the end of this month alone, Yabangee has at least five days of events planned, starting with a street party in Beyoğlu, the 100th edition of their popular quiz nights and two days devoted to celebrating Halloween, to say the least!
Traditionally held weekly on Tuesdays, on Oct. 24, Yabangee celebrates a very special 100th edition of their English-language Trivia Night Series, which will take place at Sanat Performance on Beyoğlu’s Nevizade. The quiz starts at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m., and the questions are read aloud in both English and Turkish. Come with a group, or go alone and be paired with a team for a fun quiz night that ends with the top teams winning prizes.
“The game itself is a classic ‘pub quiz’ style night where everyone splits into teams to answer questions and then we keep score to see how each team is doing, with teams winning prizes at the end for doing well,” explained the Yabangee team adding, “the content of the trivia nights are not announced beforehand. Pop culture, music, film, history, geography, current event news, science and general knowledge tend to make frequent appearances, but we also try to pull in more niche content for every session to maintain a balance. We also feature bonus rounds, which contain unique competitions like paper airplane building, dance-offs, drawing and more to keep things exciting. Our hope is that there’s content that is relevant to everyone’s interests and knowledge.”
With Halloween falling on Tuesday, Oct. 31, Yabangee has taken the initiative to host two festive costume party parties in honor of the holiday the weekend prior. This two-day bash will also be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Halloween parties thrown by Yabangee, making it the longest-standing international Halloween party series in Istanbul. Thus, on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28 and 29, there will be back-to-back parties held at Arsen Lupen in Taksim. Starting at 9 p.m., there will be makeup artists and professional photographers on board for an evening of DJ and live musical performances and a costume contest with prizes.
Meanwhile, this weekend, Yabangee will also be hosting their final outdoor gathering for the summer season, which is an International Street Fest Meetup that will take place on Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21, at Yuri Gagarin. “It’s a free event for members of our community to come hang out, network and enjoy some good music,” they explained. This relaxed gathering, which will take place on Ayhan Işık Sokak off Beyoğlu’s Istiklal Avenue, will have indoor and outdoor stages set up for DJ performances and there will be icebreaker games organized to get people to socialize. Doors open at 9:30 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
Tarık and Tuğrul tell me their newest venture is to present different areas of Istanbul and Türkiye on their YouTube channel. With a close friend, Lars Larsson, we’ve begun profiling areas in Türkiye under the YouTube channel “Reveal Turkey.” Lars is a history buff and travel enthusiast, so the videos complement that and are generally four to seven minutes of exploring the historical background and sights worth visiting in a particular place. We have a few Istanbul-relevant videos, such as our most recent one on Nişantaşı and the Prince’s Islands, but also plenty of coverage on worthwhile destinations outside the city.
One of the most highly anticipated events by foreigners in the city happens to be Yabangee’s Expat Spotlight series, which is a free monthly panel event showcasing expats discussing their contributions to the city in various areas. Held at ATÖLYE, Yabangee tells me that the hosts and moderator Jennifer Hattam have rebranded the event and tinkered with the format, turning it into the spiritual successor “We Call It Home: Istanbul Dialogues.” “We just concluded our first season at the start of summer and can confidently say that it was a big success. Our new season returns this November, with details coming soon. The easiest way to keep up with all our various pursuits is by following Yabangee on Instagram via @yabangee or joining our public special interest WhatsApp groups," the Yabangee team says.
