THIS year the Okaz Souk Festival in Taif, western Saudi Arabia, starts on August 19, and is set to last for eight days.
The festival is expected to be opened by the Emir of Makkah, Prince Khalid Al-Faisal on behalf of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, according to the Saudi Gazette.
As a prelude to the festival, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) is organising tours from Taif city to the historic site of Okaz Souk. The programme aims at marketing the souk better and developing tourism programmes, as well as presenting Taif’s tourist sites to visitors. These include the Mahazza Hunting Reserve, located to the north east, which is considered the largest fenced reserve in the kingdom containing rare species of flora and fauna.
The daily free trips are organised by Taif Provincial Tourism Organization in coordination with Saudi Public Transport Company. (SAPTCO). The shuttle service will start from the city centre’s Al Aziziya station, available for both residents and tourists. There will be a bus every 15 minutes, and the trip from Taif to Okaz Souk takes about 45 minutes.
Dr Mohammad Al Saeed, the executive director of Taif PTO, pointed out that this programme comes under the directions of Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the president of SCTA, who stressed the importance of providing all necessary means to enable tourists to reach Okaz Souk, adding that this step will also help in mitigating the traffic on roads leading to the festival’s site.
The SCTA anticipated that the Okaz Souk Festival will attract a larger tourist influx this year. The souk will be divided into different sections including traditional handcrafts, cultural and literacy activities, the latter of which will be supported by poets and lecturers from around the region as well as outside the Kingdom.
Efforts are being made to make the festival a major Arab cultural centre similar to Carthage in Tunisia and Jarash in Jordan.
Last year more than 2,000 Arab writers, poets and historians from inside and outside the Kingdom, participated in the festival, according to the Saudi Gazette.