Oman’s biggest cultural and shopping extravaganza, the Muscat Festival 2007, will be held from January 1 to February 2, 2007.

Abdullah bin Abbas bin Ahmed, chairman of Muscat Municipality, announced the date of Muscat Festival 2007 at Crowne Plaza in the presence of the media and sponsors of the festival.

The slogan for Muscat Festival 2007 is ‘Living Culture and Family Fun’ and it lives up to the name of Muscat Festival as being a window to showcase the cultural richness of the country and this time around too, the emphasis will be on the various aspects of the culture, past and present. The month-long festival is the biggest cultural event in the region with tourists from the region as well as from Europe and other parts of the world planning their trip to coincide with the festival. The last edition of the festival attracted around 2.2 million visitors.

Announcing the number of events for the 2007 Muscat Festival, Abdullah bin Abbas disclosed that many new features that make it even more interesting than previous festivals have been lined up.

The Heritage Village in Qurum Park will have a completely new and refurbished look. Apart from showcasing the various aspects of Omani culture and heritage, which is depicted regularly and has been received well by the residents as well as the tourists, this year will also showcase the heritage and culture of nearby regions as well.

There will be replicas of Syrian souq — Al Hamidiyah; Souq Khan Al Khalili — the famous souq of Cairo; Sana souq; Moroccon souq and of course, Muttrah Souq.

People from the respective countries lending the much-needed touch of authenticity will man these souqs. The souqs will show the cuisine, art and handicrafts, some salient traditions, music and dance forms followed by respective region. Needless to add, the air in the Heritage Village will be filled with merriment.

There will also be life-like models of some of the famous forts and castles of Oman which can be explored by the visitors at the Qurum Park.

The venues for the festival will be Qurum Park, Azaiba and Seeb beach. Muscat Festival has always catered to all the communities through the stage shows featuring famous artists.

This year too will see a bevy of international artistes performing for the festival. There will be stage shows featuring drama-groups, singers and bands from Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, Syria and others as well. There will also be a Bollywood show featuring some well-known names in the Indian film world.

The Global Village in Azaiba will have more number of countries participating in the trade fair and the stage programs here will have popular groups, both local as well as international regaling the visitors.

Azaiba will also feature a bigger and renewed play area with more rides than previous years. In fact, some of the new fun-rides featured here will be the first of its kind in the Gulf region itself.

To take the fun and flavor of Muscat Festival to all, Muscat Municipality has also arranged free shuttle rides that will ply every half-an-hour, starting from Al Khoudh Bridge parking, passing en-route through Markaz Al Bahja shopping centre and drop the passengers at the Azaiba Festival venue. There will also be free shuttle service from the Shell petrol.