JEDDAH, 14 January 2007 — Formula 2000 racing powerboats, hot air balloons and thousands of square meters of family entertainment have been contracted and confirmed to make the first Asir Sea Festival an unforgettable spectacle. The nine-day spectacular — running from Feb. 7 through Feb. 15 — will be staged on the beautiful sea shore setting of Al-Qahama, 170 km northwest of Jizan.
Mark Lockwood, the project manager for the festival site, said that work had already begun on the area. “The ground is broken and the bulldozers are here preparing everything for what is going to be a seaside tented village,” he said.
A complete residential tented village will be available for visitors with facilities available by the day or longer. “It is a real holiday by the sea,” he said, “in the most beautiful of settings.”
A number of activities and entertainment should attract thousands of guests each day who seek a warmer climate and beautiful surroundings during the winter break. The main goal of the festival is to attract tourists and investment to the area in the long term.
VSA Events, a Saudi-American company, was specially formed to present the festival. It won the contract over several others in a competitive tender. VSA Events is noted as a producer of sporting, entertainment, corporate and political events worldwide.
“The appointment of an executive producer for the festival,” said Osama Darandary, president of Digital Image and festival organizer, “contributes a whole new level of professionalism to the organization of this festival.”
Al-Qahama is a beautiful seaside port on the Asir Coast and has a peaceful lagoon formed by an extinct volcano. With a mountain backdrop, a harbor able to handle a variety of water-sports and a large beach, it will be the home of the beachside activities and the Festival Village.
Darandary said that he regarded the event as the start of something big. “The vision of Asir Governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal to develop Asir as the premier tourist region in the Kingdom is what has made this possible,” he told Arab News. “We have had tremendous cooperation in getting the event to this stage and the enthusiasm of officials and the local public to see it work has been incredible.”
For the first time in the Kingdom, Formula 2000 will hold a powerboat championship at the Lagoon at Hureida. International expos will be launching dozens of hot air balloons and giving rides in another first for the Kingdom and to keep the event lively, Red Bull will be entertaining with beach sports, demonstrations and competitions. Current plans are for the festival to feature three days of F-2 boat races, a Hot Air Balloon Festival, volleyball, football, jet-ski competitions, and fireworks as well as cultural shows and events.
The powerboats this year will race for a local championship but with a view to eventually entering the competition on the world circuit.
Darandary said that he expected between 60,000 and 100,000 people to attend the event this year, but expected numbers to rise dramatically as the festival becomes an established event on the tourist calendar. Part of the idea is to use the excitement of sound and speed of boat racing and the exhilaration of ballooning to introduce the idea of adventure to the young.