Watch: Saudi music fan sets up own museum housing rare records, tape recorders and radios
50-year collection journey culminates in showcasing rare discs and audio cassettes
Cairo: A Saudi man with a passion for old music has set up a museum housing rare records, tape recorders and radios.
Ali Al Qadi, who lived in Unaizah governorate in central Saudi Arabia, says he has nurtured this hobby since his childhood. “I only listen to folk artists,” he told Saudi news television Al Ekhbariya inside his museum packed with old discs and audio cassettes.
He has been collecting the items over 50 years. Some are as old as 285 years, according to him. The place is a magnet for fans of old music, the report said.
In recent years, the entertainment industry has flourished in Saudi Arabia as part of dramatic changes in the kingdom. A series of star-studded music festivals and concerts were held in several Saudi cities, drawing large audiences from inside and outside the kingdom.
Saudi media has, meanwhile, carried reports about other citizens whose various hobbies have motivated them to showcase them in their own museums.
One of them is Maher Al Ghanem, who has collected around 250,000 artefacts dating back to different eras and watershed events over more than five decades and has put them on display.
He told Al Ekhbariya in January that he and a co-curator had collected the rare items over 55 years, and it took them seven years to prepare the museum and meet the official criteria for setting up museums in the kingdom.
Located in Al Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, the museum houses pieces, which date back to thousands of years as well as weapons wielded in epoch-making wars.