Dubai Culture sheds light on the Bedouin environment during first month of Live Our Heritage Festival

Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated entity for culture, arts, heritage, and literature, dedicated the first month of the ‘Live Our Heritage Festival’ — 30th October – 30th November 2018 — which is held under the theme ‘Treasures of Emirati Cultural Heritage,’ to the Bedouin environment.

Visitors will discover how Bedouins benefit from the scarce resources and their means of identifying various types of survivor tools and life essentials. The Bedouins managed to adapt to the harsh nature of the desert environment and to take advantage of its resources. They built houses in the form of tents made from camels’ fur and managed to provide their necessary supplies from the natural resources available in their environment. Among the crafts and creations that spread to the Bedouin environment that the festival will focus on are: Carding Cotton – Spinning (Textiles) – Al-Sadu (Weaving) – Qahwa (Emirati Coffee-Making).

Fatima Lootah, Director of Cultural and Heritage programs Department, and Head of Live our Heritage committee at Dubai Culture, said: "We are happy to receive visitors at Global Village to familiarise them with our different environments, habits, and traditions as part of our eagerness to promote and preserve our heritage. The previous editions of the festival achieved their pre-set goals, and highlighting all the UAE’s environments will help us introduce our heritage in an easy and simplified manner, presenting it in the best light throughout the festival."

The festival's activities will continue until 6th April 2019. The organising committee divided the festival’s programme this year according to the different environments of the United Arab Emirates: Bedouin, mountainous, agricultural and marine. The festival welcomes visitors to Global Village every day from 5 – 10pm, giving them the opportunity to enjoy the rich programme and what it offers in workshops and events that focus mainly on handicraft education from each of the environments.

Dubai Heritage Development Centres play an active role in this festival, granting visitors a host of popular traditional games that utilise simple tools and are amusing, especially among children, projecting happiness and consolidating bonds between participants. The centres also take part in folk arts that include live expressions inherited from our ancestors and that have been passed down for generations, such as interpretational traditions, performing arts, rituals, and ceremonial events, as well as knowledge and skills necessary to achieve with high professionalism. 

Dubai Culture aims to enhance Dubai’s cultural scene and draw attention to the UAE’s rich heritage. The Authority’s mandate is to build bridges of constructive dialogue between different civilisations and cultures to enhance Dubai's position as a creative and sustainable global city for culture, heritage, arts, and literature, with the aim to empower these sectors by developing creative and innovative projects and initiatives locally, regionally, and globally.