14th Liwa Date Festival To Get Underway On Wednesday

The Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee – Abu Dhabi is organising the 14th Liwa Date Festival from 18th to 28th July in Liwa, Al Dhafra Region, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 16th Jul, 2018) The Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee – Abu Dhabi is organising the 14th Liwa Date Festival from 18th to 28th July in Liwa, Al Dhafra Region, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

Held in the Al Dhafra Region in western Abu Dhabi emirate, the Liwa Date Festival is an annual event that introduces date producers to modern agricultural practices and facilitates the exchange of expertise on the best ways to produce the highest quality date. The festival also is one of Abu Dhabi’s most significant heritage events and tourist attractions that highlights the many ways dates have impacted the cultural, heritage and economic life of the country. It provides a great place for visitors to learn about dates and sample the most popular date varieties grown in the UAE.

The annual event seeks to facilitate the exchange of technical expertise among farmers and transform the date palm tree into a symbol of Emirati perseverance in the past, a source of wealth in the present, and a guarantee of prosperity for the future.

''The Liwa Date Festival is one of the major cultural heritage projects, which the committee is striving to elevate as a way of lifestyle,'' said Staff Major General Pilot Faris Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Chairman of the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee – Abu Dhabi, while addressing a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday to announce details of the 2018 edition.

''The desert philosophy we inherited from the Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, always makes us proud of our cultural heritage,'' he stated.

Obeid Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Director of the Festival, said that the purse of prizes has been increased in this edition to AED2.25 million. ''Since the first edition, prizes worth AED70 million were awarded in different categories,'' he added.

The festival will host outstanding events, notably competitions, date auctions, lectures that seek to raise awareness on the importance of the palm tree, special workshops for children, poetry evenings, popular games and others.

The Traditional Market is one of the key highlights of the Liwa Date Festival as it sheds light on Emirati heritage and reinforces the cultural legacy the Emirati ancestors bequeathed to their sons and daughters.