The pavilion of the Eastern Province distinguished itself with special guides skilled in sign language to take care of visitors with hearing impairments. Members of the Al-Ahsa Society for Hearing and Visual Impairments will undertake this task. Children are the focus at many pavilions at the festival grounds. Khaled Qanadali and Abdul Aziz Qanadali surprised visitors with their skill in karate and other martial arts at the pavilion of the Ministry of Education.

Ruwan Qari, a fourth-grader of a Riyadh Qur’an Memorization school, dazzled the viewers with her performance in the children’s operetta “Eid Riyadh” on Monday.

Ruwan participated in the festival representing the Education Ministry last year also.

According to director of the ministry’s cultural activities Saad Al-Thunayyan, “Eid Riyadh” is the most notable program presented by the ministry this year. Faisal Yamani is the director of the operetta.

The ministry’s pavilion, which is the largest among the pavilions of ministries at the festival, also organizes games including table tennis, hockey, billiards, basketball, football, and gymnastics besides folk entertainment.

The ministry’s cultural, literary and dance events are presented at a theater. The events can also be watched on huge screens at entrances to the pavilion. Students stage programs under the supervision of their teachers.

A museum in the ministry’s pavilion pulls a large number of visitors. The museum showcases the ministry’s gradual growth since its establishment in 1925. Its exhibits include biographical details of 5,000 teachers who worked before 1970 in addition to 500 women teachers who were in the ministry’s service until 1970.

Another part of the pavilion focuses on the ministry’s service to children with special needs. It also displays special teaching devices needed for children with various disabilities. The pavilion also offers training programs to interested visitors on topics such as self-education, citizens’ national responsibilities, creative thinking and art of reading. The women of Madinah display traditional clothes and dishes besides art works at their pavilion. Madinah dates, traditional dishes and vegetables are in great demand at the exhibition grounds. Fresh Madinah mint is also very popular among visitors and is brought straight to Janadriyah on an early morning flight from Madinah every day.

The pavilion also offers tea mixed with fresh rose adding an exotic flavor to the tea. Many medicinal plants are also available at the pavilion.

The pavilion also offers hot khobz (bread) cooked in handmade ovens, maamoul (date pastry) and special rusks made from wheat.

Visitors to the Qassim pavilion are being treated to kleja (a popular pastry in Qassim and adjoining provinces) and “sukari” dates. Folk artists perform popular dances and songs entertaining visitors. Officials of the pavilion eager to please visitors invite comments and suggestions on the items presented at the pavilion. While distributing dates to visitors an official of the pavilion said he wanted to remove any misunderstanding about Qassim people’s hospitable nature.

The Saudi Standards Organizations attracts visitors to its stall displaying old weighing and measuring devices. It also displays films and distribute booklets on specifications that consumer goods should have.

The Anti-Corruption Commission’s participation in the festival is notable by its awareness activities, such as the distribution of booklets and films on its achievements. It also features a film on how corruption was dealt with during the reign of the Kingdom’s founder King Abdul Aziz.

Festival authorities have also given an opportunity to inmates of jails including women to display their handcraft products and art works.

The Ministry of Housing is participating in the national festival for first time. It showcases models of 37 housing projects it is currently undertaking, besides the future projects it plans to launch in different parts of the Kingdom. It also provides video presentations of its projects. Most visitors are eager to know when the ministry’s first housing project will be completed, the criteria for distributing houses and the number of projects the ministry is undertaking.