Janadriyah Festival

Since we lived here for the past 3 years, this is the first time we visited Janadriyah festival. At first hubby was reluctant to go esp. when he heard the crowd was huge coz hubby is not a great fan of being hurdled in a crowd. However after we saw pictures posted on facebook by some of our friends, rasa teruja pulak nak pegi. It was the perfect timing as hubby was off on sat.I bet if we had to go during the weekend,(here weekends falls on Thurs and Fri) I would not be successful in coaxing him to go! Sure enuff, the crowd was average on Saturday and we had a very relaxing and enjoyable day.


Janadriyah festival is a rich cultural presentation of the past and present of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is held once a year, usually between February and March. During the festival, traditional activities such as folk dances, camel races, arts and crafts exhibits as well as poetry readings are showcased for the entire duration of the festival.

For the first time, we can just snap photos everywhere! In saudi, it is a big no no for you to take pictures in public places. In some instances, men are jailed for taking pictures n public places. So you can imagine our surprise when people there actually wants to pose for the camera!Some kids even asked hubby to take their pictures. Mula mula hubby takut takut jugak nak pakai his D90 but then we saw there were quite a number of visitors clicking their cameras and hps, baru lah rasa confident nak take pictures of the festival.


It is something like those espo in malaysia with exhibition from the ministries, universities, banks and museum. Off course there are souks or markets where you can buy all sorts of 'treasures'. Most souks sell fascinating antiques or replicas of it, traditional items such as pottery, tikar and antiques jeweleries. Food stalls are plenty too.

To me, the main attraction of the festival is the cultural exhibition and the history of the kingdom. It is interesting to see how different states in saudi, has slightly different cultural background.


We went there after asar as it opens at 4.00pm. During the first week of the festival, it is open for men only. Families can go during the second week. It was an awesome experience as this is the first time I felt relaxed being among the arabs. Surprisingly most of the people we met or brushed along the streets are very friendly and people seemed to be in a merry mood everywhere.


I guess being at the festival, shows a different side of the locals....the lighter side of the local people, their warmth and friendliness. Usually in the city, the locals tend to be a little bit uptight and macam sombong sikit but not in Janadriyah. Prhaps it is also because at the festival the people are mostly from outside Riyadh. At the Ministry of Justice exhibition where the Apache heli, tanks and planes are the army guys were very friendly. They painstakingly tred to explain to us in english about the exhibition and helped the kids get up on the tank and heli to take pictures. I am impressed!


We luv the sword dancing show. The men looks more like warriors rather than dancers!
The only music instruments they used are the drums and something like kompang.



One of the best thing here is that at prayer time, all activities come to a halt and all shops and exhibition centres are closed. The activities resume usually after 20-30 minutes of break. Men will have jemaah prayers at almost every corner (they prepare carpets/rugs). As for women, there were also prayer mats placed strategically or you can just pray anywhere convenient for you. Here it is easier as we are already wearing the arbaya, so we can conveniently pray in our arbaya.

Insyallah next year if we are still here in riyadh, we will definitely love to visit the Janadriyah festival again. Tak puas pegi sekali coz there are still so many houses and exhibition we didnt get to see.