Eight-day Liwa Date Festival begins

Abu Dhabi: The sixth annual Liwa Date Festival, held under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, and organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach) was officially inaugurated on Saturday.

The eight-day event, located in the Western Region, will include not only various cultural events, such as folkloric performances and traditional handicrafts but also a daily date competition where top entries compete for monetary prizes collectively worth Dh5m, and several four wheel drive vehciles. Participants can also enter competitions that target other areas of interest for farmers, including products that can be created from the various parts of palm trees.

The Abu Dhabi Farmers' Services Centre (FSC), a recently established organisation tasked with reforming agricultural practices in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and streamlining the marketing of local produce, will also be presenting a series of lectures. They will be discussing various topics, including modern farming methods, including Water Resource Management, Integrated Pest Management and the marketing of UAE dates.

With over 700 participants already registered from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi alone, this year's festival, which is spread out over 50,000 square metres and divided into three tents, will leave visitors spoilt for choice.