King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, will patronize here Wednesday the inauguration ceremony of the 27th Janadriyah festival. South Korea will the guest of honor this year. The festival, organized by the Kingdom's National Guard, depicts a wide range of programs including a breathtaking annual camel race, a national folk dance with swords called “Al-Ardha,” craft exhibitions and culinary specialties. A large number of guests and scholars have been invited to take part in the cultural and intellectual events to be held on the sidelines of the festival. Janadriyah village, spread over 1.5 sq km, houses over 30 huge areas or replicas representing different regions of the country. The festival features a lot of arts and objects made by carpenters, blacksmiths, cobblers, weavers and other craftsmen from different regions of the Kingdom. The event is very popular among Saudis and expatriates, particularly youths, who throng the village to get a glimpse of the Saudi heritage and culture. The folk and heritage festival, moreover, gives Saudi and foreign visitors a chance to take a closer look at the social tableau of an earlier era. The arts pavilion also puts on a number of works on display. Sixteen poets, including Saudi poet Ibrahim Khafaji, will be honored during this year's festival. Artists from the Gulf region are also taking part. Janadriyah, the first of which was held in 1985, is Kingdom's National Festival for Heritage and Culture.
