Muscat Festival to Begin on January 18

Press release

Published January 15th, 2018 - 12:39 GMT

Muscat Municipality has completed all preparations for this annual event.

The 18^th Muscat Festival will begin on January 18 under the theme ‘Let’s celebrate together’ at several venues across the city.

Muscat Municipality has completed all preparations for this annual event. This year’s festival will have many new entertainment, cultural and sports activities, in addition to science and arts competitions.

Hundreds of tourists are expected to throng the festival venues over the 24-day period. This will be followed by Tour of Oman cycling event that will be held from February 13-18.

Festival activities will be held at Amerat Park and Naseem Gardens, in addition to the Oman Automobile Association premises, cultural halls and clubs. Musical, theatrical and art activities will be held at the Al Madinah Theatre and Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Khalid bin Mohammed Bahram, assistant chairman for Services in Muscat Municipality and assistant head of Muscat Festival's organising committee, said, “Naseem Gardens will host a range of educational, creative and recreational activities and programmes for children. The venue will have the Family Village and the Children’s Theatre, which will host a variety of activities. The Entertainment and Arts Park will bring together a variety of electronic games and fun rides.”

He said that there will be a trade exhibition, a heritage village displaying various traditional art forms, cultural programmes as well as fireworks display on a daily basis.

About activities at Amerat Park, Bahram said, “It will have the Omani Heritage Village, in addition to a traditional market for promoting Omani heritage. There will be theatre performances by the folklore teams, a special amusement park, theatre shows and various other events. Besides, a number of government agencies will have their stalls in several parts of the park.”

The timings at Amerat Park and Naseem Gardens will be from 4-11pm and from 4pm until midnight on weekends.

The festival concludes on February 10.

Source: Muscat Daily

Background Information

Muscat Municipality

Available sources indicate that the history of municipal order in Muscat goes back to the early twenties of the last century when the first administrative organizations emerged to carry out municipal tasks such as cleaning and the organization of markets and buildings (in addition to some miscellaneous tasks prescribed by the governments at that time). For example, in 1938 an administration was established to organize streets and houses in both Muscat and Mutrah. It charged the transfer of garbage and such charge was known then as municipality charges (as stipulated in Oman Customs Law issued in 1938). This highlights that imposing charges by the municipality is not a novel issue as it was there sixty years ago.