The 13th edition of the "Al Ain Book Festival 2022", organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre - affiliated with the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi started on 14th November and runs till 20th November.
The festival, held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Ruler's Representative in Al Ain Region is held at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain.
The event will take place across five sites in the city, for the first time ever, including the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Zayed Central Library, Qasr Al Muwaiji (Muwaiji Fort), Bait Mohammed Bin Khalifa, and the UAE University. This year’s theme is ‘All Eyes on Al Ain’, the city known as the birthplace of the Founding Father of the UAE, the capital’s ‘garden city’, and home to the UAE’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Visitors can expect a huge range of events and activities designed for all tastes and age groups across the multi-site festival. Scheduled events include panel discussions, live music, shows and performances, seminars, workshops, sports activities, and heritage events to name a few.
The Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium will serve as the hub, hosting a multi-faceted Children and Youth Programme and a dynamic Arts Programme. Additionally, there’s also the all-important Publisher wings – an inspirational showcase of publishing in the Arab world today. Also slated are 70 performances, including folk and heritage shows, dance and comedy events, and for the main event – Syrian, Dubai-based handpan player Anas Alhalabi. With at least 49 cultural seminars delving into the specifics of Al Ain heritage and several other exciting events planned, the AABF promises to be bigger and better than ever before.
The Centre pavilion, as part of its participation, displayed its publications collection and briefed the festival visitors about Al Jami library's rarest books and manuscripts. It also showcased a model of the mosque and played several of its cultural series, broadcast through various media platforms via a wide screen. This, in turn, translates the mosque's message and underscores its leading role in reviving the sciences and arts of the Islamic culture and is an extension of its role in building bridges of cross-cultural communication between cultures.
It also acquaints them with the diversity and richness of features of Islamic art and architecture throughout the mosque and its prominent role in extending bridges of cross-cultural communication between different world cultures and spreading the values of tolerance and human fraternity.
