Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — In collaboration with the General Authority for Entertainment, AZ Events hosted a massive three-day event at Jeddah’s Corniche gathering up to 6,000 people over last weekend.

“We are opening doors to summer. We want everyone to have a good time regardless of age. The event is for kids and adults. There were a variety of different things we had at our event. There were pony rides, exotic birds, flamingos and even a zebra. We had four different zones — A, B, C and D. These included a stage with live shows including a fire show, DJ, along with food booths, fashion, local sponsors, VIP area, the kid zone and animal shows,” Noura AlKurdi, an organizer at AZ Events told Saudi Gazette. “Things in Saudi Arabia are changing and moving at a dramatic pace which is good for us. Nothing is too extreme and as long as we are in line with our culture then everything is fine. We also show people it is okay for genders to mix within boundaries of tradition and religion and it just flows easily.

We want to showcase local talent and to show people outside Saudi Arabia what we enjoy doing here,” AlKurdi added.

Maintaining gender equality within the 100 volunteers employed, the same number of boys and girls were hired to work for the event.

“It’s a great experience and lots of fun. Honestly a lot of people, mostly teenagers and up to like 40 years of age just come to mingle with the crowd, take pictures for social media and make new friends. I would like to add that men and women working together is never an issue, it’s so natural and good to see for those who doubt it. I would like everyone to come and see it,” Ahmed, a volunteer at the event told Saudi Gazette.

Young Saudis showed up sporting the latest fashion trends. “It is a chance for us to get out and shine basically. It is a great way to meet new people, interact with a different crowd and I will probably come everyday since it’s a weekend,” Amal, a 22-year-old Saudi said. “I feel like most of these events are like fashion shows for all of us. There is no difference between London or Jeddah, we all dress the same and it is so cool,” Amna Jameel, a 25-year-old model, said.

Social media influencers were invited to hype up the event and promote local businesses. “We had a blogger show up and put us on her snap and honestly that’s great marketing for small brands like ours,” Lama, a Saudi student working as an intern for a local brand at the fair, said.

Families with young kids were also seen during the early hours of the event. “My daughter loves horses so we brought here here for the pony ride. My younger one had so much fun in the Kellogg’s tent for kids. We enjoyed the food and the animal show. We have never seen such beautiful and exotic birds in our lives. So it was a treat for the whole family and not just our kids,” Saba Mohammad, a Syrian housewife living in Jeddah, told Saudi Gazette.

AZ events previously held successful shows in Jeddah including Vintage and Ruqi. They plan to have a show in Ramadan, but haven’t officially confirmed yet.