developments in the arts in 2018 included saudi arabia’s debut appearances at the cannes film festival and the venice biennale. at the same time, david guetta declared that "there is obviously a very big effort in saudi to open to music and to artists". this was after he performed a concert attended by more than 10,000 people in the heritage site north-west of riyadh. the concert also included shows by enrique iglesias and the black eyed peas. guetta’s comments come as saudi arabia increasingly attracts big name western music acts to perform in the kingdom. since his concert last november, mariah carey, sean paul and akon all performed in various saudi cities.