A carousel at Festival City
A CARNIVAL atmosphere with amusement park rides, adventure activities, live performances, roving acts and food trucks is in full swing as part of the country’s largest shopping festival.
The largest edition of the ‘Festival City’, which is part of the fifth annual Bahrain Shopping Festival – Shop Bahrain, is being held at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir until February 2.
The ‘city’ covers 22,000sqm at the BIC and features rides such as a carousel along with carnival games, a zip-line, rock climbing, an outdoor cinema, stage performances, roving performers, food vendors and a children’s corner.
It also offers raffle draws, surprise gifts and top prizes, including several new cars and discounted air tickets, as part of the nationwide shopping festival.
Shop Bahrain, organised by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), kicked off on January 1 and features the participation of 32 hotels and 24 shopping malls across the country.
BTEA tourism relations head Reem Tawfiqi told the GDN that this year’s Festival City was the largest of its kind and was expected to draw in more visitors than ever before.
“The Festival City has many components to it such as rides, restaurants, retail shops, carnival games and many other activities, including an outdoor cinema and a stage with ongoing performances throughout the day,” said Ms Tawfiqi.
“Each person that visits the Festival City enters the chance to win the Shop Bahrain raffle draw; we have a booth dedicated to Shop Bahrain so people can go and register for the Festival City.
“This year we have the largest Festival City by far as it covers 22,000 square metres at the BIC, and the reason we held it here is because we have more space (for the festival) and more car park spaces.”
The month-long Shop Bahrain, which will run until February 2, give shoppers the opportunity to enter a raffle draw and win more than 73,000 gifts, including 11 new cars, for every BD10 spent.
The shopping festival aims to further drive the growth of tourism and retail sectors and contribute to the development of the economy whilst increasing the average daily expenditure of tourists.
Last year’s edition of Shop Bahrain saw around 70,000 visitors, with a total volume of transactions worth BD19 million compared to BD8m in 2017.
“(Festival City) is a nice, fun change of pace for the children and for us, especially now that the weather is nice,” said 35-year-old Bahraini housewife Deena Marhoon, who visited BIC with her three children.
“The new location is a little far but I think it’s nice, there are more rides and games for the children compared to last year – I’m happy and the children are happy.”
Bahraini accountant Mohammed Nabeel said visiting outdoor festivals during the cooler months of the year was a welcome change of pace for locals and residents.
“It’s something new, you know? Something different to do on a weekend,” said the 28-year-old.
“It is very family-oriented, lots of games for children, but I think there’s something for everyone even if it’s just doing something different.
“I like the inclusion of the food trucks, there’s lots of great food that you can only get at events like this, and I like discovering new food and new places, so bringing them all here is great.
“It’s good to have these nice outdoor things to do now that it’s gotten cold, I hope that there will be more events like this before it gets too hot again.”
Mother-of-four Mona Adel said she brought the entire family to Festival City because it was a breath of fresh air and meant her children were not glued to their phone or computer screens.
“We wanted to take the children out, to get them to leave their games and their phones for a while, and let them go out and have some fun with us,” said the Bahraini national.
“It was hard to convince them at first but when they came here they saw the rides and games and they just went and played.
“It’s good for them to run around and play these carnival games, try rock climbing and just get them active and have them use that energy instead of staying at home playing video games.”
Amateur photographer Obaid Attiya, who is a chemical engineering student at Bahrain University, also said he was excited to capture the atmosphere of the carnival and family-oriented activities on film.
“I came here because I thought it would be a good place to snap some photos, especially when the sun is down and all the lights come on with the rides and the stage shows,” he said.
“I got some really nice shots, and I think festivals and other open air events like this are usually great to take pictures, they’re usually bright and colourful and have lots of photo opportunities.”
The Festival City officially opened to the public on Friday after it was postponed on Thursday due to a severe sandstorm that brought sudden chaos to Bahrain and sparked major air and sea alerts.
Weathermen also forecast a drop in temperatures but said the unsettled weather will stabilise by tomorrow.
Festival City will be open from 4pm to 10pm Sunday through Wednesday and from 4pm to 11pm on weekends.
The entrance fee is BD2 and for more information follow Shop Bahrain’s social media accounts.
ghazi@gdn.com.bh
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