DATES FESTIVAL 2013 DUBAI AIRPORT//مهرجان الرطب 2013 بمطار دبي

Khaleejia said: 

عكست فعاليات «مهرجان الرطب 2013»، في المبنى 3 بمطار دبي، المكانة الكبيرة التى تحظى بها شجرة النخيل في الإمارات، ومدى ارتباط الإماراتيين بها، إذ لم تكن مجرد مصدر غذائي عاش عليه الآباء والأجداد وحسب، بل مصدراً رئيساً للكثير من الحرف التقليدية التي لم تكتف الأجيال بالمحافظة عليها، بل سعت جاهدةً إلى تطويرها وابتكار حرف حديثة تحاكيها.

Dates Festival 2013, hosted by Terminal 3 of Dubai international Airport featured prestigious companies which are focused on the products derived from palm tree. Highlights of the festival celebrated importance of the palm tree as it was not just a food source at the times of our parents and grandparents, but also a major source of many traditional crafts that have not only was implemented by the generations and maintained, but also struggled to develop, create and emulate them up to the modern life.

Some crafts had been forgotten but some of these crafts are still alive under the attention of the specialized organizations which attract public attention to the profession of craftsmen and provide the necessary support for them, in an attempt to stimulate and promote the inheritance of the parents to their children, the new generation  in order to protect traditional crafts from extinction. 

Video: Sama Dubai features the event:

Khaleejia's Life Blog was invited to assist with the organization and had chance to meet a lot of interesting people and get new friends. Here is our photo and video report exclusively for khaleejia.blogspot.com readers. The festival was inaugurated by General Director of Dubai Civil Aviation Mohammed Abdullah Al-Ahli.

Video:By Khaleejia's Life

Traditional majlis.

Gold rings and sleeve representing traditional outfit.

Life assets and crafts man representing life style of the past.

Traditional prints on the pillows

Ahmad Majid showing around the pieces of art and product of traditional hand-craft.  

The carpet made of the palm leaves attracted special attention of the respected delegation.

Testing the new line of perfume which is made from the palm tree.. secret technology and different mixes made its scent unique, beautiful with the gorgeouse arabic perfume notes. 

 Woven from palm leaves baskets were very important appliance for each house.

Haris - traditional khaleeji meal made specially for the Festival and also to support Expo 2020 to be held in Dubai.

Invited media helped us to cover the event for the masses TV and Nespapers such as: Emarat Elyom, Khaleej, Al Bayan

UAE to be considered the first country in GCC by quantity of Palm trees that give dates. The Festival presented all kinds of the dates that are grown in UAE . All visitors had a unique chance to try all of them. 

During the opening some of the top UAE based fashion houses such as Dar Sara highlighted the Festival with their splendid Fashion show demonstrating those pieces of their collections which creation was influenced by the environment, a palm tree and the culture.

Dates naturally drying out under the sun.

Beautiful models posing with their khaleeji makeup and hairdos specially for Khaleejia's Life readers. 

Artist Walid Al Shami holding his oil painted artwork of Al Bastaqia.

Mr. Al Shami saying that it is a great pleasure for him to participate in The Date Festival as he love drawing 

traditional and used to work in khaleeji villas and houses where he did great hand work paintings on the floors often representing in his artworks traditional elements of the environment and life. 

During the festival Mr.Walid was working on a new project - painting well known palm island in the shape of the name of HH SHeikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum we may see from the distance of a bird fly . When we talk to the artist he was drawing the world famous hotel Atlantis that  located on the original Palm Island.

Cute covers inspired by Traditional materials and patterns

When fashion mixes with tradition..these hand made pieces of furniture attracted our special attention.

Fatima -one of our emirati friend and guest showing her beautifully done henna

specially for you khaleeji henna fans.

Once i was put behind the scene assisting the models with their quick dress change could not skip an advantage to take these photos from this nice angle  of traditional Arish house as well.

Inside the Arish(palm tree)  house

Arish house roof(look from inside)

My idea to take photos of models wearing traditional outfits while sitting in the majlis was supported by all photographers. Thanks to all for  beautiful impact on the festival

At the festival General Director of  "Halawa w Qahwa"(Sweets and coffee), Mohamed Hassan al-Tamimi presented his popular products: pure dates decorated with sesame, nuts, white, dark  and milk chocolate and sweet halva (Alrhish),  was another temptation at the festival.

 

Mouthwatering juice from the fresh dates.. you must try it! And one of the most delicious date-sweets we may ever tasted in our lives by Al Foah - a governmental company. 

Liwa Dates also attended the event and we all enjoyed their delicious sweets  and even pickles all made from dates!

Another amazing product at the exhibition was tea with pure 22 K gold. As General Director of Qirat Tea Abdulrahman Alblooshi says himself, he has the most expensive and luxury tea collection in the UAE. Among luxury and exclusive tea Qerat Tea presented one of the most expensive kind of coffee brought specially from South Africa to Dubai. Mr. Abdulrahman saying that he has to travel a lot in regards to look for the most pure, unique and high quality coffee and tea around the world.

BuRashed treated all guests with perfectly cooked Arabic coffee..would you like to know his secret receipt?

Jamshid Alam from Sharjah, a craftmen with life long experience shared his talent to make true copies of the dates from gypsum. Photo: In the process of the work..applying colors.

without BuRashed and Jamshid our Festival would not be that nice.

More traditional  hand crafted item were presented in the souk corner where.

Jewelry  collection designed by Emirati Azza Al Qubaisi, including necklaces, pendants, bracelets reflect the look and shapes of the UAE environment and Palm. 

We thank the national identity team and personally Ahmed Bin Majid for making The Date Festival 2013 unforgettable and such a bright event from where we all could learn a lot.