Liwa Dates Festival to open at night

Liwa Dates Festival to open at night Silvia Radan / 4 July 2013 For the first time in nine years, the Liwa Dates Festival will take place during the holy month of Ramadan, from July 18 to 25, in the Western Region desert oasis of Liwa. Although the festival’s opening hours will be at night, from 8pm to 1am, the organisers do not think there will be a drop in participants or visitors. “The Liwa Dates Festival always takes place in the summer, when the ratab dates are in season. We cannot postpone the festival because of Ramadan. Besides, we work during the holy month, so the evaluation of the date farms will take place during the day, while the festival’s activities are scheduled in the evening,” explained Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, chairman of the Higher Organising Committee of the festival and the Culture and Heritage advisor to the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court. Last year, 1,500 participants were registered with the festival and over the past eight seasons nearly 70,000 people came to see the Liwa Dates Festival. As usual, buses will be provided for visitors from Abu Dhabi and Al Ain to the festival, which will take place in an air-conditioned massive tent. All the old favourites are back this year, including traditional Emirati folklore, cooking competition, a kids’ tent and the popular date palm farmers’ souk with 120 shops being set up. As for the competitions, there are seven different dates categories, each awarding cash prizes to the top 15 contestants, as well as a mango and a lemon competition, each with prizes for the top 10 winners. Altogether, the festival is giving away this year Dh 5 million in prizes. “The competition is open to any UAE farmer, although we tend to have most of our competitors from Al Gharbia and Al Ain,” pointed out Obaid Khalfan Al Mazrouei, director of the festival. According to him, the festival cannot be extended to the Arabian Gulf simply because the ratab — the fresh, half ripe dates — season starts from east to west. Omani dates, for example, are the first to ripe, while certain Saudi varieties ripen only in September.In the UAE, the ratab season lasts for about a month, depending on the type of dates. The festival is not just a celebration of the dates harvesting, but a good business, as well. “We help the date palm farmers not just with awards, but also facilitate meetings with distributors, manufacturers and other businesses related to date palm trees,” Obaid Al Mazrouei told Khaleej Times. “The date production quality has also improved. In 2009 for example, it was very easy for us to pick the competition winners, while now over 20 people fight for the first place,” he pointed out. The full programme of the festival is available on http://www.liwadatesfestival.ae/ . silvia@khaleejtimes.com       Taylor Scott International