Saudi Arabia: Preparations afoot for flagship camel festival

Cairo: Saudi Arabia is preparing for hosting the world’s biggest camel festival, drawing owners from the kingdom, other Gulf countries and the rest of the world, according to Saudi media.

The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is scheduled to kick off on December 1 and continue for 40 days.

Owners of around 33,000 camels are expected to participate in the event set up on an area of 32 square kilometres north of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The sixth edition of the festival will feature cultural and entertainment shows, in addition to a famous camel market, the biggest in the Gulf, seeing multi-billion deals annually.

The organizer, the Saudi Camel Club, is finalising the processing of applications for participation in the festival and competitions in its 19 categories with a total of SR250,000 cash prizes.

Camels are a popular animal closely linked to heritage in Saudi Arabia. The animal has long been dubbed as the “ship of the desert”, being the lifeline for desert dwellers.