Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Season to feature mass wedding

Cairo: The upcoming edition of the Riyadh Season, Saudi Arabia’s annual entertainment and tourist festival, will feature a mass wedding of 300 couples, its organiser has said.

“Based on the Riyadh Season’s social responsibility towards the homeland’s young men and women planning to tie the knot and, in their support, we’ve decided to hold a mass wedding ceremony for a total of 600 brides and grooms,” the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Turki Al Alsheikh said.

The ceremony will also feature a concert and a dinner gala, he added in an X post. The official urged businesspeople and Saudi companies to contribute to the charitable deed.

The fifth edition of the Riyadh Season is scheduled to start on October 12 with 14 zones, 11 world championships and 10 exhibitions.

The flagship festival will include the opening of the Boulevard Runway, a new zone set up in partnership with Saudi Airlines, where retired aircraft are used as entertainment and eatery facilities. The zone capacity reaches 9,000 people.

The venue will begin receiving visitors on October 28, promising them a unique experience that will enable them to explore the aircraft, with a real flight runway, to enjoy entertainment, shopping, and dining.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to diversify its oil-reliant economy and attract more visitors.

In May 2016, the kingdom created GEA, a state agency that has since sponsored a slew of stellar concerts, stage shows and festivals.

A major event organised by GEA is the Riyadh Season made its debut in 2019 with the aim of turning Riyadh into a global entertainment and tourist destination.