I love Tyre. I properly discovered it when I was 23 years old, and immediately regretted not doing so earlier. It’s an amazing city and one that for me, challenged a lot of the stereotypes many Lebanese sadly have about it.

Apart from the breathtaking ruins scattered all over the city and in its waters, Tyre shuts down its maritime avenues to cars every weekend, making the “car-free days” there a weekly event in summer, not just every couple of months like Beirut-dwellers like us are used to. The tolerance is another thing that made me love it, with other cities so clearly demarcated along sectarian lines, you can wear a bikini and have a beer on the beach during Ramadan without anyone harassing you in Sour. But, that’s not even the best part, the beach is free there, as it should be. Free, clean and well-kept. An example that puts to shame the $50 entrance fees to swim in the exact same sea just a few kilometers north.

The last thing I loved was how much the people from Tyre adore it. Perhaps the government would never in a million years think of developing the city’s streets and giving them a facelift. No problem, local families and individuals happily donate their money and time to beautify what is already a gorgeous port city mentioned time and again in ancient stories about conquest and resilience.

That’s why I was very happy to see so many photos of Tyre on my Instagram feed this weekend and tried to get my hands on some myself to share here.

Live Love Beirut and Red Bull teamed up for #MySummerEdition that plans to tour different parts of Lebanon that many of us have yet to experience. First on the list was Tyre, where the Red Bull “Makana” truck parked on the famous Tyre public beach with C U NXT SAT DJs providing the soundtrack to a day spent on a public beach that’s clean, and free, a basic right Lebanese people are robbed off everywhere else.

In the evening, Red Bull did their first ever Vertical Stage in Tyre with Latoya, Gurumiran and Karim Khneisser, three local artist I love and feel very lucky to call friends. Vertical Stage events group different local artists together for one night on a balcony or terrace of a traditional Lebanese house or the sole purpose of making beautiful music. I loved that it was above Al Fanar in Tyre, where I highly recommend you go for a drink and dip at this summer if you missed it last weekend.

If you wanna find out about the other places #MySummerEdition is going to next, check the calendar here. I also might be leaking a few of those events here too, so stay tuned and like the folks behind the campaign say: try something new this summer!

Photos courtesy of Richard John