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Liwa Date Festival becomes a tourist destination

Liwa, Abu Dhabi - The 2010 Liwa Date Festival continued for the fourth day to attract more visitors from across the UAE and tourists as well.

The unique traditional market woos the visitors. More than 159 shops are displaying Emirati women creative handcraft which mixes traditional arts with modern arts. Beside the market visitors can tour the specialist palm and date exhibition, where different institutions and companies specialised in palm and agriculture industry are displaying the modern tools and methods of everything related to plant nurturing and date production.

On the other hand the judging committee began examining the farms of participants in ‘Alkhneizi’ dates category of the best date competition. Farms are examined as part of the strict terms and condition of the competition to make sure no chemicals are used in date production. 74 farmers participated in this category but 74 will be examined.

‘The strict rules of the competition and the high accuracy followed by judging committee made some participants to withdraw from the competition’ said Obeid Al Mazrouei, Director of the Liwa Date Festival.

‘The overwhelming number of visitors to the festival is an evidence for great success of the event. Despite the hot weather and rising temperature people are still coming to the middle of the desert to witness the lovely authentic Emirati heritage. This is evidence that the festival has become an important tourist event’ he added.

UAE’s youth have also revealed outstanding creative talents to develop the production of dates, according to Al Mazrouei. Date pickles with different flavours are on display at the market along with new productions related to dates such as special kidneys tea, coffee, teeth cleaner, eye-liner and essence all made from date seeds mixed with other natural ingredients.

The festival also hosted a culture and heritage lectures organised by the Culture, Youth and Social Development Centre of the Western Region at the folkloric performances tent.

Speakers included Obeid bin Sandal and Salem Bin Ma’adan the famous heritage keepers who delivered a lecture on traditional etiquette known locally as Sana’a.

The sixth session of Liwa Date Festival 2010 is organised by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage ADACH with aim to revive the tradition of celebrating date harvest every year.

The leading sponsor of the festival is ADNOC and its group of companies. The Emirates Nuclear Energy Agency is a Silver Sponsor, while the Gold Sponsors are Al Dhahera company for Agriculture and Al Fowaa Company for Developing the Palm Trees Sector, Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society as the Silver Sponsor, and Abu Dhabi Media Company as the Media Sponsor.

The festival is also supported by the Western Region Development Council along with the Western Region Municipality, the General Headquarters of Abu Dhabi Police, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, Abu Dhabi Distribution Company and Abu Dhabi Transport Department.

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