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Riyadh Season to Kick off on October 20

Governor of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh. (SPA)
Governor of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh. (SPA)
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Riyadh Season to Kick off on October 20

Governor of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh. (SPA)
Governor of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh. (SPA)

The Saudi capital is gearing up to host its massive recreational festival, Riyadh Season, after a two-year halt caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh announced on Monday that the festival will kick off on October 20.

He said the recreational events will be held in 14 districts in Riyadh and cater to audiences of all ages.

This year’s Riyadh Season will be much bigger than previous editions, boasting 7,500 events, 10 exhibitions, and 350 stage performances and an e-sports competition, he revealed.

Al-Sheikh also addressed the Matloob platform that was launched by the Authority ahead of the Riyadh Season.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Authority is seeking to support aspiring artists and establishing a fanbase for them. He explained that as they gain more fans, the artist will be requested to perform at major events, such as Riyadh Season, in the future.

This year’s edition will also boast 100 interactive events, 24 Arab and international theatrical performances, car exhibitions and auctions, concerts, a wrestling match, and two football matches played by international teams, said Al-Sheikh.

Over 30 tons of fireworks have been dedicated to the event and visitors will have over 200 restaurants and 70 cafes to choose from.

Over 16,000 workers built the venues of the festival, which is expected to generate record revenues and attract a record number of visitors and tourists, added Al-Sheikh.

In 2019, over 10 million visitors and 200,000 tourists attended the festival and the General Entertainment Authority generated over a billion riyals (266 million dollars) in direct revenues.

The Riyadh Festival had helped create over 51,000 direct and indirect jobs in the past and this figure is expected to double for this year’s edition, he predicted.

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Varieties

Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Traditional clay pottery is seeing a resurgence in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are forced to find solutions for a shortage of plates and other crockery to eat from in the territory ravaged by more than a year of war.

"There is an unprecedented demand for plates as no supplies enter the Gaza Strip," 26-year-old potter Jafar Atallah said in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

The vast majority of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Fleeing bombs amid Israel's devastating retaliatory military offensive, which has destroyed large amounts of civilian infrastructure, everyday items like cups and bowls have often been lost, broken or left behind to perish.

With imports made increasingly difficult by Israeli restrictions and the dangers of delivering aid, Gazans have had to find resourceful ways to meet their needs since the war began.

- Bare-bones -

To keep up with demand, Atallah works non-stop, producing around 100 pieces a day, mainly bowls and cups, a stark contrast to the 1,500 units his factory in northern Gaza made before the war.

It is one of the numerous factories in Gaza to have shut down, with many destroyed during air strikes, inaccessible because of the fighting, or unable to operate because of materials and electricity shortages.

Today, Atallah works out of a bare-bones workshop set up under a thin blue plastic sheet.

He carefully shapes the clay into much-needed crockery, then leaves his terracotta creations to dry in the sun -- one of the few things Gaza still has plenty of.

Each object is sold for 10 shekels, the equivalent of $2.70 -- nearly five times what it was worth before the war led to widespread shortages and sent prices soaring.

Gazans have told AFP they are struggling to find all types of basic household goods.

"After 13 months of war, I went to the market to buy plates and cutlery, and all I could find was this clay pot," said Lora al-Turk, a 40-year-old mother living in a makeshift shelter in Nuseirat, a few kilometers (miles) from Deir al-Balah.

"I was forced to buy it to feed my children," she said, noting that the pot's price was now more than double what it was before the war.

- Old ways -

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 44,176 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Following each Israeli army evacuation order, which generally precedes fighting and bombing, masses of people take to the roads, often on foot, carrying whatever they can manage.

But with each passing month and increasing waves of displacement, the loads they carry grow smaller.

Many Gazans now live in tents or other makeshift shelters, and some even on bare pavement.

The United Nations has warned about the threat of diseases in the often cramped and unsanitary conditions.

But for Gazans, finding inventive ways to cope with hardship is nothing new.

In this, the worst-ever Gaza war, people are using broken concrete from war-damaged buildings to build makeshift homes. With fuel and even firewood scarce, many rely on donkeys for transport. Century-old camping stoves are reconditioned and used for cooking.

Traditional pottery is another sign of a return to the old ways of living.