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The most popular street at Al Dhafra Festival |
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A three kilometer unpaved street in the middle of the desert became so popular in the region for the valuable camel deals made on its sides. The main street in the location of Al Dhafra Festival, going on in Zayed City in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi Emirate, known as the Million’s Street, is the most popular location not only among camel owners in the Arabian Gulf region but on an international level too; from this location the world came to know about camels voluable deals in the past two years. Thousands of camel owners from UAE and GCC countries flock annually to Zayed City, the gate to the Empty Quarter, to participate in the core activity the festival known locally as "Mazayen" or camel beauty contest, where they choose their best camels to expose them for ten days on a specialized judges committee hoping to win one of the UAD 42 million prizes. This year more than 1200 camel owners registered in the contest with more than 28.000 camels participating in deferent laps for the category of Asayel and Majaheem camels. In order to improve the quality of their camel herds, camel owners head to the Million’s Street, where camel manors are located along the sides. From this location, estimated by more than UAD 200 million camel deals were made over the past seasons of the festival. Last valuable deal was made two days ago by Emirati Hamdan Bin Ghanim Al Falahi who bought number of camels for more than UAD 45 million from Million’s Street. Exposing camels in this street became a phenomena "though out the day the street is very busy specially after sun set where camel owners show the beauty of their camels and its strain to draws the attention of buyers who may pay millions for a charming and authentic camel," said Salim Al Mazroei, Director of the Festival. In the last two seasons of the festival, the street in its old location witnessed the popular deal for selling the famous camel Marokan for more than AED 15 million and camel Mura’a which was sold for AED 10 million from the same location. Facilities and serves centers are located in this street also; organizers and Western Region municipality provide camel owners with water, wood and fodder in addition to a clinic, veterinary, mosque and a 24 hour grocery. Also along the sides of the street many tents are seen selling traditional handcrafts products related to camels which are vary from UAE 50.000 to millions according to camels category, strain and age. An organizer of the festival, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), aims to preserve UAE’s heritage through multi activities that reflects the local heritage on the sideline of the festival.
The third session of the festival, held under the patronage of HH General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, started on Saturday 30 January and will last until February 8.
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