Midwam, a homegrown Saudi company that specializes in designing and curating unique experiences for organizations and institutions, partnered with the Royal Commission of AlUla to design the recently held AlUla Dates Festival. The event, which opened on Oct. 15, ran over the course of three weekends.
The RCU worked closely with Midwam to host the festival, which brought together date farmers, investors and members of the local community. AlUla is home to Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site and the festival aimed to highlight the Kingdom’s most captivating cultural heritage treasures and traditional artisan practices as part of the long-term sustainable development of the city.
Midwam was established in 2012 and already counts tier-1 government entities as its clients including the Ministry of Culture, the Saudi Art Council and Misk Innovation. The company has worked on some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest transformational events such as the first MDLBEAST Soundstorm festival, a record-breaking music festival that took place in Riyadh in December 2019, drawing the participation of 400,000 attendees.
The opening weekend of the AlUla Dates Festival attracted thousands of people including Saudi nationals as well as international visitors. This is the first event which has been held in the city since the start of the pandemic. Midwam curated the festival in a way that enabled visitors to experience AlUla’s culture and heritage first-hand in order to deliver on the objectives of Vision 2030, increasing both the quality and quantity of the Kingdom’s cultural activity.
Khalid Al-Muawad, co-founder and CEO of Midwam, said: “We are delighted that Midwam has partnered with the Royal Commission of AlUla to design the experience in such a significant cultural event in the Kingdom. The AlUla Dates Festival is playing a vital role as being a great platform for the wonderful people of AlUla to showcase the rich culture of the area. The sales that took place in the local souq is a reflection of the confidence and appeal of the event to the visitors. From the dates auction early in the morning to the local storyteller telling tales of old about AlUla, we made sure that each touchpoint is designed in a manner that highlights the wonderful aspects of this Saudi city to locals and international visitors alike.”
Midwam leverages augmented, virtual and mixed reality as well as AI to offer innovative, flexible and smart solutions on multiple platforms. The Jeddah-based experience design company has worked on some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest events and with leading Saudi public and private sector entities to create emotional and inspirational connections between the human and the brand.
