Dahab Bedouin Festival

Al Salaam Aleikum,

We are happy to announce the dates for the 3rd Dahab Bedouin Festival, from the 21st to the 27th of April 2013. Once again we are inviting everyone to join us in promoting Bedouin culture and eco-tourism. This year we will be paying particular attention to the environment by organising daily clean ups before gathering to celebrate in the festival area on Dahab’s flood plain.

The final programme will soon be published, in the meantime if you would like to know how you can join, help or sponsor the Dahab Bedouin Festival, or for any information, please e-mail us: bedouinfestival@gmail.com.

Welcome!

The Dahab Festival is over, marking the end of a very intense month of April for the Dahab Bedouin Festival group. It was a great pleasure to have participated in the organisation of the Dahab Festival this year. We would like to thank all the people who came to the festival and all the organisers for giving us these memorable moments.

It was a pleasure for us to meet so many people and host you with a Bedouin tea under a traditional Bedouin tent. We will continue are effort throughout the year to promote Bedouin in tourism, Bedouin culture, eco-friendly tourism, regular clean ups and full moon events.

A very special thanks to all organisers of the Dahab Festival, we look forward to doing it all over again, even better…

The Bedouin Festival organisers are very grateful to a great number of people. We are sorry if there is anyone we may have forgotten to mention, you can be sure that any help has been appreciated.

Thank you to Sheikh Ali Hotel for providing the tea and coffee that we could then offer for free.

Thank you Habiba Organic Farm for the generous contribution.

Thank you to Ly, Nadim and Ahmed Sherif for their generous contributions, as always, supporting the Bedouin.

Thank you to Kinderhouse Dahab and Nura’s Tsige for all the help with children’s activities, charity and promoting Bedouin.

Thank you to Golden Star hotel for support and allowing the film projection and meetings all year round.

Thank you to Youssef Al Khawaga for providing us with the tree branches that were used for decoration.

Thank you to Ayman, Yasser and Ahmed from Rush as well as Abdallah Abu Saleh for helping us out with speakers and equipment for the final night party.

Thank you to Ahmed Taha for providing drinking water and support.

Thank you Bernadette “Habiba” for helping us with the website.

Thank you to the musicians and camel riders for their time and special flavour they gave the festival.

Thank you to the city council for their support and attending the festival.

Thank you to the workers of Hemaya for bringing food for the camels and helping to keep the festival site clean.

Thank you to the members of Dahab’s community who gave their support.

Thank you to Ashraf Abu Seif, Ibrahim and Abu Mohamed for helping with prints and flyers.

Thank you Esther for permanent positive vibes and support.

Thank you Dahab Festival organisers and we look forward to our common festival in a couple of days.

Thank you Mourad for the movies and documentaries.

Thank you Adham for helping out during the festival and banging on the drums.

Thank you to Karen Selby for the amazing artwork for the festival.

Thank you to the artists and photographers who exposed their work at the festival: Graeme, Ursula, Salha and Karen.

Thank you to the camel riders, musicians, helpers, supporters…

Thank you to ever person who came to the festival, you are the heartbeat of the festival.

A choatic camel race, a spectacular full moon, a beautiful gathering for the final night party, a cute baby camel, a standing ovation after Salah’s presentation on Bedouin history, many people from all over the world and all over Sinai coming and going…overall, a real festival feel and a week of community and cultural exchange.

Thank you so much to all those who helped to organise, participated, contributed or simply attended the Bedouin festival that took place last week. For us it was a very successful week for the simple reason that so many people came and left with positive feedback. This year’s festival was attended by many guests on holiday as well as  long term residents and also many Bedouin. Our most rewarding feedback has been from the Bedouin who came from the desert to see the festival and left saying thank you. Also a lesson to all people involved in tourism, that genuine hospitality in a hassle free environment is what travelers are looking for.

It was a crazy week, that is what festivals are about I suppose… Although we were more organised than last year, we still learned a lot of lessons and have a lot more to learn. But then again, even the biggest festivals in the world will have organisers who will look back and see where improvements can be made for the next edition. The Dahab Bedouin Festival group will be participating hand in hand with the Dahab Festival, we hope to see you there for more of a good time.

Here are a few pics of the Bedouin Festival, more to come…

We would like to thank Sheikh Ali Resort for providing free tea for the duration of  the festival.

We welcome you all to come and ride a camel and then follow the camel race that will take place on friday the 6th at 17h by the festival area, in the flood plain on the other side of the road by the bridge in Masbat, Dahab.

Camel races are one of the favourite events of Bedouin. It is also an opportunity to see how fast these animals can really go!

Thank you very much to Karen Selby for another beautiful poster for our second Bedouin Festival.  Karen had already designed the poster for last year and has kindly contributed her work to our festival again this year. She will be amongst the artists displaying their work at the exhibition on Monday the 2nd of April at 16.00. We greatly recommend Karen for any poster/logo/flyer work as she is extremely talented and professional.

e-mail karen@karenselby.com