It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or so say camel lovers. An estimated 20,000 camels from across the Arabian Peninsula will descend on the Empty Quarter this week for the tenth edition of the Al Dhafra Festival.
The organiser, the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee - Abu Dhabi, believe it is the world’s largest camel beauty pageant, where 1,500 competitors and their 15,000 beauty camels will compete for Dh38 million in prizes and the chance for international prestige. Prizes include Nissan sports utility vehicles and Dh30 million in cash prizes.
Set in the dunes outside Madinat Zayed, the festival begins this Thursday, December 14 at 10am with a milking competition, a classic car competition at the festival’s traditional market and a shooting competition.
New this year is a competition dedicated to shellah, a type of melodic Bedouin poetry.
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Shellah plays an essential role in the camel beauty industry, thanks in large part to the fame of Al Dhafra Festival's Millions Street, a broad dirt road beside the judging pens where camels are paraded up and down between competitions. As camels strut past onlookers, high-pitched shellah anthems extolling a camel’s beauty are blared through car speakers and admirers circle their camels, dancing alongside them and twirling sticks. This can attract wealthy bidders and drive the camel’s price higher or push intimidate rivals into withdrawing before the competition.
The best camels at Al Dhafra have shellah anthems composed in their honour, often overlaid with the clash of lighting to substitute musical instruments that some Al Dhafra participants would find at odds with their conservative religious beliefs.
The shellah competition is scheduled to run most evenings at 6pm from Sunday, December 17.
This year’s most prestigious event, the competition for best herd, will take place on Friday, December 22 and Saturday, December 23.
Al Dhafra is an important political unifier in the Gulf and one of the largest non-religious gatherings of Gulf citizens from the Arabian Peninsula. Thousands of men will set up camp in the dunes surrounding the judging grounds, keeping their fires burning and the coffee brewing for unexpected guests.
Pre-registration is not required and all nationalities are welcome to compete.
"Registration is open to all owners of asayal and majahim beauty camels," said Mohammed Al Muhairi, the festival's director. "It doesn't matter if they are from the Emirates or the United States."
Camels from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE are expected to compete, although owners from Qatar will be absent from this year’s festival.
The judging panel will be exclusively Emirati this year, in contrast to the mixed panels of the past. “We have people who are trusted and capable, so we have no shortage of good judges,” said Obaid Al Mazrouei, the planning and projects director at the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee - Abu Dhabi.
It is not just about beauty. There are a total of 1,400 prizes on offer. Farmers from Al Dhafra have been saving their best dates for the most prestigious date auction of the year, which starts on Friday morning and is followed by a falcon auction at 2pm. Traditional cooking competitions, Arabian saluki races and Arabian horse races will take place throughout the festival alongside the main event. There is also a brand new competition for the best goat on Wednesday, October 27.
The festival is free and open to the public.
Essentials
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct from the UAE to Geneva from Dh2,845 return, including taxes. The flight takes 6 hours.
The package
Clinique La Prairie offers a variety of programmes. A six-night Master Detox costs from 14,900 Swiss francs (Dh57,655), including all food, accommodation and a set schedule of medical consultations and spa treatments.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Nancy 9 (Hassa Beek)
Nancy Ajram
(In2Musica)
Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
