The Janadriyah Festival

We've been name-dropping the Janadriyah Festival (Jenadriyah) in some of our entries and we haven't featured it yet. It's high time we do so, don't you think? (Blame me for procrastinating.)

Janadriyah Festival is a national heritage and folk cultural festival. Located 45 kilometres outside Riyadh, Janadriya plays hosts to the cultural festival annually. Traditional activities, including folk dances, camel races, arts and crafts exhibits as well as poetry readings are showcased for the entire duration of the festival—it lasts for two weeks and is organized by the National Guard.

Last March, our social club at work offered a trip to the Janadriyah Festival. Since we've long been curious about this annual grand event in the Kingdom, Eyecandy, Mary and I signed up for the trip. We boarded into the coaster and left around 4:30 in the afternoon. We didn't know that Janadriyah, the place, is far. We were in the road for one hour. That includes the traffic we encountered in Mecca Road. We closed our eyes for a while and by the time we opened them, we were already seeing camels in the roadside. Lol. Probinsya na yata.

An oasis has been formed in the middle of the desert to accommodate the event and we can already say that the place was packed even before we got to the gate. From the road, we already saw jet planes doing an aerial show; smokes of different colors were coming out of the planes' tails. The first thing we noticed when we got off the vehicle was the presence of the muttawas (religious police). There were quite a number of them manning the entrance so we had to pull our tarhas (veils) out and cover our hair. What welcomed us was a sea of people in black and white and several mud buildings housing different exhibits.

First up was a makeshift horse stable featuring some of the best Arabian horses. We imagined them riding off into the Arabian night.

What a stud you are.

We went inside the Ministry of Agriculture's exhibit next and found out that there were organic products in the Kingdom. (Yey for me who's currently in my use 'organic' phase.) There were organic vegetables, fruits, and oils.

A huge aquarium with gold fishes welcomed us into the Ministry of Agriculture's hall. Organic extra virgin olive oil.

We asked this Saudi to be in the photo with us because it's been one of our goals ever since: to have a picture with a local. Hehe. (E and M with our friends)

Some plump oranges, which they gave for free

Our fave crustacean.

In Saudi Arabia, you can actually have dates. We mean these dates.

Because it's nearing prayer time when we left the exhibit area, we went to the jam-packed eating area where many fast food stalls were assembled for the festival. There's Herfy, Kudu, Cone Zone, etc. We chose to eat this:

Cabrito's roasted chicken, yum!

More people flocked the place when dusk settled in. There were a couple of Filipinos but we rarely saw them during our entire stay. That's okay coz we think we pretty much blended right in. Just look at Mary here:

M in her pink black tarha.

While some of our friends are still eating, R and I braved the crowd to watch what we really came for: the Al Ardha, Saudi Arabia's national dance.

Ardha is a type of folkloric dance performed by the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian peninsula. It was traditionally performed before going to war, but nowadays is performed at celebrations or cultural events, such as the Janadriyah festival. The dance, which is performed by men carrying swords or canes, is accompanied by drums and spoken verse.

The drums of Ardha were used to declare war.
Now, the drums are used as an accompaniment to recited poetry.
In this dance, swords are wielded as part of the national and official celebrations and the re-pledging of allegiance to the authorities.

Dancing! Woot!

We can't help but sway to the beat of the drums and the chants. It was fascinating to see the locals dance. The women in the crowd were also dancing and hooting. We never saw them do that in public; not until this event. We spent a good 20 minutes watching in awe. Having the chance to watch the Ardha made the Janadriyah experience so worthwhile.

We walked and walked after. Again, blending right in with the crowd. How crowded was it, you ask?

There are days for family&women only and men only.
Always check the schedule when going to the Janadriyah festival!

And this is only a part of the wide, open space. We couldn't do a panoramic shot of the entire place, sorry.

We entered one more exhibit hall and saw the Bedouin crafts and livelihood:

This quite scared us at first, lol.

The Bedouin way of life is so rich in culture and tradition. Even their dresses were rich in colors, fabric, embroidery, and beads. Their earthen ware are intricately done too.

Making a fish net. The man explained how they use this trap to catch fishes. It's genius!

We just walked around a bit because we had to go back to the coaster at 8:00. What do you think is the Eiffel Tower doing in Saudi Arabia?

This is where the exhibit of the French embassy is.

There were more people inside that well-lit, gated palace. Too bad, we ran out of time to check it out.

We groaned at the mere 4 hours we have to enjoy Janadriyah. We missed a lot of exhibit halls and we also didn't catch the camel races, the mizmar dance, and the carrot cakes, which are said to be distributed during the festival. :P

All in all, the Janadriyah experience is really one of a kind. We got to see Saudi Arabia in a different light. Despite being a desert, the Kingdom is also rich in culture, tradition, and heritage, just like the Philippines. This year, we became a part of the more than one million visitors who attended the festival. And there goes one ticked off from our to-do list in Saudi Arabia.

Parting shot:

E and M posing at the huge oud burner before we went home.