Images (High Resolution)
1
2
UAE – Western Region: Under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and with a huge public presence the Dhafra Festival has been launched yesterday in Madinat Zayed- Western Region for the fifth Mazayna Al Dhafra (camel beauty contest) organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. The festival will be held from the 17th till the 28th of December 2011.
The Festival is the largest of its kind compared to the last four festivals which are purely inspired by the UAE culture and heritage. The event attracted various audiences from the Emirati society and GCC countries in addition to UAE foreign communities.
Salem Ibrahim Al Mazroui - Director of the festival stated that he expects a rising level of competition among the participants over the past years due to the higher numbers of competitors that gained lots of experience from the previous festivals.
He added that this festival is expanding on yearly basis as we noticed new participants from countries like Yemen, Jordan and other GCC countries.
Salem Al Mazroui said that the organizing committee increased the number of referees to 10 members, 5 of them will be chosen randomly on daily basis, in order to choose first ten ranked camels. The other five permanent referees will be handling the final judgment on the first winning positions of the previous 10 ranked camels.
Salem Al Mazroui praised the supports and the attention by His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in the western region, making this festival a successful cultural and heritage event locally, regionally and globally.
The Director of the Al Dhafra Festival that the value of prizes for the winners this year have increased to over 40 million dirham, including 155 Range Rovers and Nissan Patrol, in addition to valuable cash prizes.
Al Mazroui mentioned that the falcons hunting competition of Jeer Hor and Jeer Shaheen falcons will take place at this festival as well.
This, along with other activities such as the dates Packaging Competition and camels' auction, Mahalib (camel milking competition), handicrafts competions, photography competition, heritage market, and the children's village and the tent of Ministry of Interior, In addition to that the yearly emirati handicrafts market that includes about 160 shops.
The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage has recently registered (Sadu), which represents the traditional skills of the fabric production in the UAE as part of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.