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Camels' Best in Show - And Best in Poetry - at Al Dhafra Festival

By day, their beauty is valued with big cash money honors and by night they influence tracks and rhymes that fill up the cool, completely dry wintertime desert air. A Bedouin's love for his camel has never ever been even more revealing than at Al Dhafra Festival and this year thousands - 1,500 to be much more precise - of Arab men are travelling from throughout the Gulf, with their most stunning camels, to set camp in the desert borders of Madinat Zayed, in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi emirate.

Organised by the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Board - Abu Dhabi, Al Dhafra Festival has actually grown from a mainly camel charm reveal One Decade ago to a celebration of Emirati - and Gulf Bedouin - customs, with saluki, falcon and lamb elegance competitors, Arabian competition, finest handicrafts, days and laban (sour milk) competitions being among the 16 various heritage activities this year. Yet, the camel mazaynah (appeal) competitions stay at the heart of the Festival.

"We have 84 camel competitions in different groups, 18 for Emirati, and the rest are opened to anybody, no matter nationality, as long as they go into with pure-blooded Asayel or Mujahim camels they possess. Asayel is the golden-red hair camel that is original from Oman, while Mujahim is the black camel that originates from Saudi Arabia. Only in the camel milk competition we enabled combined types," stated Obaid Khalfan Al Mazrouei, Director of Heritage Competitors at the Board.

"To enter the camel competitors, people need to sign up here, at Al Dhafra Festival, at least a day ahead of time. From this year, the judging standards is a little altered, to concentrate even more on the top quality of the access, yet we still consider the camel's proportions, head, neck, hair and basic look," included Mohammed bin Adhed Al Muhairi, Director of the Camel Mazayna at Al Dhafra Festival.

Up to the top 10 of each of the 84 camel competitors are granted, starting point obtaining a new Nissan 4x4, while the other get cash prizes from AED 80,000 (second place) to AED 10,000 (10th place).

Awards aside, winning camels come to be promptly more valuable, their cost jumping into the six-digit numbers. One of the highest deals - which was approved - made for a winning camel in the previous years of Al Dhafra Festival was AED 1.5 millions!
"If you desire your camel to win an appeal competition, you should recognize the best ways to feed it. We give it fresh milk and honey for a number of weeks prior to taking it to the Festival, and we also add the most effective top quality hay and turf to the camel's diet to improve its hair, body and basic appearance. Obviously, it doesn't come affordable; you might end up spending over AED 5000 a month on one camel," claimed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, a Festival individual from Madinat Zayed area.

"We really appreciate the camel a whole lot. In the eyes of the Bedouin, the camel is always attractive, and he will certainly never ever tire of showing his affection for it. When I was a young kid, I utilized to watch my dad, that would certainly go on for hrs stating poetry about the camel, which he gained from his daddy or composed himself," he took place. The desert animal, applauded in the Holy Koran, and a basic part of the Bedouin poetry, has constantly gone to the heart of the Arab lifestyle.

For centuries, camels were the Arabs' most prised possession, frequently the sole resource of survival, giving them food, transportation, wool for coverings and camping tents, and a revenue. Camels are no longer needed for survival, but the bond has actually continued to be just as solid. Therefore has the poetry.

The lengthy minutes - occasionally going into over an hour - of waiting before winners of each camel competitors are revealed, are filled with Nabati - Bedouin - verse about camels. And after that, when the winning names are called out, the knowledgeables develop into screams of pleasure, song as well as dance, while the gorgeous camel is covered with garlands and pricey saffron. Well right into the night, in the outdoors tents that stretch for miles across the Festival premises, verses keep whispering a Bedouin's love for his camel.Al Dhafra Festival will proceed until December 29th.