Jenadriyah Festival 

By Aljawhrah Alajaji

The Jenadriyah Festival is a Saudi Arabian cultural festival held by the Saudi National Guard in Riyadh State, since 1985. The festival occurs in February or March. It attracts many visitors from both inside and outside Saudi Arabia, more than one million visitors every year. The place where the Jenadriyah festival was originally held turned into a permanent village outside of Riyadh city, called, 

Jenadriyah has visitors from the leaders of the countries of the Arabian Gulf, then expanded the hosting of the festival guests to countries in the Arab region in The Middle East and the continents of other world into a festival gathering regionally and globally.

Each year there is a guest of honor country who participated in the festival. In 2009 Russia  participated in the Jenadriyah 24th; the French Republic participated in the Jenadriyah 25th on 2010; Japan on 2011 in the Jenadriyah 26th; South Korea on 27th the following year, Republic of China on 2013 in the Jenadriyah 28th; and finally the United Arab Emirates on 2014 in the Jenadriyah 29th.

Also each year, an operetta is held with a different theme that represents a cultural or historical matter. The operetta is attended by the king and lots of important people in the country. The beginning of the operetta in Jenadriyah festival was begin in the fifth edition of the festival in 1988 and was attended by many poets, composers and artists only from Saudi Arabia. Still it is only written and sung by only Saudi Arabia artists.

The festival activities include camel and horse racing, as well as performance of local music and dancing the Ardha dance, which is performed by men carrying swords or canes, and is accompanied by drums and spoken poetry. 

Also, there is also folk poetry, a book fair, arts and unique heritage of the regions, folk costumes, and popular markets, display of traditional crafts such as weaving, woodwork, metalwork, and leather work.

This year the festival was canceled due to the death of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud may Allah--have mercy on him--on January 2015. However, it will continue on 2016. 

If anyone want to visit Saudi Arabia they should visit during the festival time to have a great journey to the history.