UAE | Heritage and Culture
Liwa date festival attracts many
Enthusiasts can sample the fruit and buy it directly from farmers.
- By Eman Mohammed, Abu Dhabi Deputy Editor
- Published: 23:30 July 17, 2009
- Image Credit: Abdul Rahman/Gulf News
- Shamma Hamad Al Mazroui displays her fresh dates to a visitor at her stall at the Traditional Souq on the opening day of the fifth Liwa Date Festival on Friday.
Liwa: Thousands of farmers and visitors gathered at the exhibition centre in Mezera'a, the centre of Liwa, in Al Gharbia (formerly the Western Region) on Friday to witness the soft opening of the fifth Liwa date festival.
The festival, which is being conducted by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, aims to preserve the heritage of Abu Dhabi.
Mohammad Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Chairman of the supreme committee of the festival and director-general of ADACH, toured the festival tents spread over 43,000 square metres surrounded by sand dunes.
The festival tents include a hospitality tent, contest tent, popular market tent, exhibitors' tent and children's tent.
Obaid Khalfan Al Mazroui, director of the festival, previously told Gulf News: "We opened the ratab [dates] market to sell farmers' products directly to visitors, to encourage our citizens and farmers, making way for greater participation, as well as providing a space that can embrace a wide array of events, which include for the first time in the history of the festival a variety of activities like a ratab competition, a traditional market, poetry evenings, traditional games and competitions on palms and agriculture, and a children's tent, electronic games and a children's theatre.
"One of the primary goals and objectives of the festival is to preserve the national culture of palm and ratab dates via the encouragement of farmers to achieve a greater quality of ratab dates, in order to access more opportunities for excellence and competitiveness at local and global levels," he said.
For the first time visitors can sample the dates and buy them directly from farmers at the festival.
Yesterday, 57 farmers from across the UAE registered in the first category of the date competition - Bou Maan, one of the most popular date types in the region - which was examined by a judging committee and given marks out of 50.
The committee will also visit farms and give them marks out of 50, and winners in this category will be announced this evening.
Registration for the other categories of the competition (Khallas, Al Dabbas, Al Fardh and Al Nukhba) will continue till the end of the festival on July 26.
In each category, 15 winners are chosen. Winners in the first three positions receive four-wheel-drive vehicles and the rest of the winners will be given cash prizes amounting to around Dh3.5 million.
Also, 11 government departments concerned with the cultivation of date palms and a number of specialist educational institutions and companies will be taking part and offering an exhibition of all that is new in the world of dates and the cultivation of palm dates. There will be up to 60 companies, with the participation of producing families.
Support: Five categories of competition
The date competition is open to all farmers in the UAE and has five categories - one for each of the five famous date types in the Western Region: Khallas, Al Dabbas, Bou Maan, Al Fardh, Al Nukhba in addition to the best heritage display. In each category 15 winners are chosen by a committee.
Winners in the first three positions are awarded four-wheel-drive vehicles and the rest of the winners will be given cash prizes totalling about Dh3 million.
Transportation to the festival is available from Abu Dhabi to Liwa, special buses are available at Marina Mall and Abu Dhabi Mall every day from 8am.
UAE University donates palm shoots
Five date palm shoots will be given to every farmer participating in the date competition, Obaid Khalfan Al Mazroui, director of the festival, told Gulf News: "Around 10,000 palm shoots ... given by the plant tissue culture laboratory at UAE University will be distributed [to] participants taking part in the competition to support palm tree farming."
Your comments
Is it open to public? How can we visit the venue. Any location map?
A Reader
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 18, 2009, 16:57
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