Experience Emirati heritage hands-on at Al Ain's Traditional Handicrafts Festival

Abu Dhabi: At this year’s 12th Traditional Handicrafts Festival in Al Ain, Emirati heritage is something you try, not just something you look at. You can take a seat in the salon to see how hair was once styled, learn to wear traditional dress, stand in line for the Ayala, find out how a Rahmani drum is built and played, shape clay with inherited techniques, or take on the Heritage Carnival Games with your family.

The 12th edition, presented by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, runs from October 23 to November 11 at Souq Al Qattara in Al Ain. More than 900 artisans, designers and heritage practitioners take part, and entry is free. The newest things in it are a salon and a music pavilion.

“You don’t see anything and leave,” Rauda Mohamed Al Dhaheri, Head of the Community Engagement Unit said to Gulf News. “You participate.”

The craft of dress

The Traditional Fashion Pavilion follows traditional dress from flat cloth to finished garment: the patterns, the colors, the machinery, and the fashion of both women and men. Old sewing machines measure and cut as they once did.

And the salon shows the daily routines and beauty rituals of the past, where hair and care were as much a priority as dress. Children see how girls’ and boys’ hairstyles once looked, then learn to wear traditional dress themselves.

Mariam Sultan Al Dhaheri, Head of the Programmes Development Department, describes a space that celebrates the craft behind Emirati clothing and the elegance of the women who wore it: how fabrics were chosen, what the garments were called, and how they were worn.

“This year, the fashion pavilion shows the beauty of the craft of Emirati dress and the elegance of women in choosing what they wear, from the fabric to knowing its types, its names, and the ways it was worn. And in the salon, we show the daily routines and hair care. We teach our daughters that hair is the crown of beauty, and that care for it is a priority, just like dress.”

Rauda Mohamed Al Dhaheri, Head of the Community Engagement Unit, sees the same care in the details. “From start to finish, the woman thinks of every small detail, whether it’s her hair, how she’s dressed, what kind of accessory would go well with this color.” she said.

Details that look incidental today, she explained, were part of a considered process, and this year’s festival is meant to convey that.

The sound of the festival

Next door in spirit is the new Traditional Music Pavilion, the third of the festival’s interactive spaces alongside Bait Al Gahwa and the fashion pavilion. It is built on the idea that instruments should be understood as well as heard.

Malek Al-Hammadi, Head of the Programmes Development Unit, said the team wanted to go beyond showing the instruments and let visitors learn how they are made and played. Young people can learn the basics of the Ayala, see how the Rahmani drum is built and played, and join activities inspired by the rababa. Two genres, the rababa and the Taghrooda, join the program for the first time.

The Ayala is the heart of it. Performers stand in two rows facing each other, shoulders close, moving their canes in time with the drums and with poetry. “It’s an expression of unity and pride,” Al-Hammadi said.

Much of the music, he explains, was made by groups, often to lighten hard times. The Nahama, for example, comes from sailors entertaining themselves through grueling work at sea.

“We want people to know that traditional music here is not just displayed but also taught and encouraged.”

A journey, not a show

Rauda Mohamed Al Dhaheri describes the festival as a journey. Visitors move from pavilion to pavilion, read the signs and sit down with the artisans, and then the souk offers something to take home: an item of dress, a scent, a reminder of the day. The community is built into the souks, the retail stalls and the food and beverage outlets, where local entrepreneurs bring their own products and stories.

The festival is meant to feel like home for anyone who walks in. “They will be like, ‘Yeah, but my mom had something like that. My grandmother had something like that. We were trying to create this connection between the community and every activation.” She said.

What she is most excited about is the hands-on side of it. Children will learn from an artisan how to wear the Hamdaniya the proper Emirati way, and the workshop is open to anyone, whatever their age or nationality. And in a world where parents are always busy, she sees the festival as a place where a family can gather and learn the traditions together.

Why it matters

Farah Abdulhameed Al Bakoush, Director of the Culture Festivals and Platforms Department, said the festival’s purpose goes beyond display. “It’ is not only about showcasing specific and tangible cultural elements, but in principle showing what’s the value of that.” she said.

Pride, beauty, hospitality and generosity, she explained, are the lessons the crafts carried from one generation to the next. The festival focuses on the people who carry them: the artisans, performers and practitioners.

Her case for why this matters now is resilience. “Our traditions have taught us until today to be resilient,” she said

Heritage, she argued, has not disappeared in the modern city. It has changed form. A cup of coffee poured today still carries the old values of generosity. Families still wear national dress at Eid and on National Day.

Young Emirati entrepreneurs still build products on heritage patterns, forms and names. Her favorite moment is a small one.

“Sometimes when I pass by, I see a young lady talking to an artisan, she might not know her, but now she might have learned something.” she said.

More to see

More than 900 artisans, designers and heritage practitioners take part. The program includes live craft demonstrations, a Craft of the Week, pottery workshops, a Designers’ Space, the Al Maqith Trail following the Hadhar caravans from the coast to the oases, and a Falconry Zone.

The new Heritage Carnival Games bring fairground play into a heritage setting, and Emirati Traditional Games return. Fifty-five productive family markets, 25 youth projects and 26 restaurants fill out the souq.

Still more to tell

Why new elements every year, then, if heritage is supposed to be constant? Al Bakoush said it is not finished.

“There are so many untold stories about heritage,” she said.

Craft, performing arts and coffee stay as the fixed core, while life in the oasis and life at sea come as stories of their own. Each year, a few more are told.