Skip to main content
Wednesday, November 11, 2026Nov 11
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Syria’s better-offs seek fun as war grinds on

In this Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014 photo, a woman lights up a cigarette in the DJ booth at a Halloween party in an upscale Damascus hotel, Syria. Followed by a vampire and a medieval knight, a man dressed up as an Islamic militant walks into the thumping club, past the blue-lit bar in a Damascus hotel, determined to party. The music is pounding, a break-dancer stands on his head and in the DJ booth, a man and woman are kissing. (AP Photo/Diaa Hadid)
In this Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014 photo, a woman lights up a cigarette in the DJ booth at a Halloween party in an upscale Damascus hotel, Syria. Followed by a vampire and a medieval knight, a man dressed up as an Islamic militant walks into the thumping club, past the blue-lit bar in a Damascus hotel, determined to party. The music is pounding, a break-dancer stands on his head and in the DJ booth, a man and woman are kissing. (AP Photo/Diaa Hadid) In this Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014 photo, a woman lights up a cigarette in the DJ booth at a Halloween party in an upscale Damascus hotel, Syria. Followed by a vampire and a medieval knight, a man dressed up as an Islamic militant walks into the thumping club, past the blue-lit bar in a Damascus hotel, determined to party. The music is pounding, a break-dancer stands on his head and in the DJ booth, a man and woman are kissing. (AP Photo/Diaa Hadid)

By Associated Press 6 min read

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Followed by a vampire and a medieval knight, a man dressed up as an Islamic militant walks into the thumping club, past the blue-lit bar in a Damascus hotel, determined to party. The music is pounding, a break-dancer stands on his head and in the DJ booth, a man and woman are kissing.

Over the loudspeakers, a droning voice intoned: “Welcome foolish mortals. There’s no turning back now.”

Amid a conflict lapping at the edge of Damascus, Syria’s better-offs spend their time in cafes and at parties, strolling a gleaming new mall and enjoying the controlled adrenalin of amusement park rides overlooking a city skyline of buildings and columns of smoke from bombings – striving to deny war its miserable monotony.

Yet as the Syrian conflict grinds on, well into its fourth year, almost no family has been left untouched by death, injury, poverty, homelessness or missing relatives.

“We want to change our boring routine,” said Naja, a she-vampire with fake blood drooling from her reddened lips. “Every day we live a horror show (in Syria) but this one is a comedy,” she said, laughing at the hotel Halloween party. Nearby, a woman painted makeup on arriving guests, turning them into vampires or Spiderman. Beside her, Cleopatra and a two-faced man posed for photographs.