-
This year the festival will include camel beauty contest
-
The 15th edition of the festival will coincide with the country’s 50th year of birth
The fifteenth edition of Al Dhafra Festival will be begin in October and would continue till January, and would include camel mazayna (beauty contest) competitions in Sweihan, Razeen and Madinat Zayed, in addition to the principal mazayna competition at the Al Dhafra Festival site.
Held under the patronage of Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohamed issued directives to expand the festival and also ordered the total prize money at the festival to be increased to AED110 million.
The 15th edition of the festival, which coincides with the country’s Year of the 50th celebrations, is set to witness widespread interest and increased participation by camel owners in the UAE and GCC countries.
The program is aimed at preserving and promoting UAE cultural heritage among future generations. The directives also serve to further develop heritage festivals, support and encourage camel owners to participate, and to acquire valuable, authentic Arab breeds. It also aims to support and encourage participation in falconry competitions, pure Arabian horse and traditional Arabian saluki races, archery, and falconry and ghanam al naim (sheep) mazayna. Increasing the prize money is also intended to boost camel breeding and camel racing, thus creating new job opportunities.
The aims of Al Dhafra Festival include: unifying criteria, terms, conditions, efforts and resources to achieve greater success in all mazayna competitions; increasing the number of participating camels; preserving pure camel breeds, and increasing demand for these breeds; contributing to the development of local and GCC tourism; stimulating economic activity; shedding light on the region; and strengthening Abu Dhabi’s status as the destination for camel mazayna locally, regionally and internationally.
