“The prince always instructs festival officials to work in such a manner that visitors do not experience any difficulty in the Janadriyah village,” Al-Muqbil said, adding that the prince also ordered instant removal of any obstacle faced by mediapersons. He believed that the prince’s personal supervision prompted festival workers to strive hard and make the event a great success.
However, the official dismissed reports appearing on some websites that men and women were dancing and mixing at the festival village as baseless, adding that those who schemed to discredit the festival spread such rumors. “The fact that Janadriyah is a grand cultural event of international fame doubles the responsibility of the authorities to maintain its reputation earned over the past years,” Al-Muqbil said.
Muhammad Al-Bahili, a visitor in his 80s, who toured around the village in a wheelchair with the help of his grandsons, said he visited the festival every day as the scenes in most stalls stoked the memory of his childhood days.
The $3 million South Korean pavilion welcomed a large number of visitors to its eight stalls. The first stall, entitled “A Tunnel Across Time” enables a visitor to learn about different periods in the history of Korea. The second stall shows 3D animated film on the importance of water. The third stall illustrates geographical features of that country with the help of diagrams and maps.
The fourth stall presents 32 porcelain jars representing Korean culture and heritage. It also screens short films portraying various aspects of the country’s culture. Interactive computers give a description of the contemporary life, cuisine and sports of that country.
The fifth stall gives an account of the cultural and technological relations between the Kingdom and Korea.
The sixth stall describes the economic features of Korea with the help of animated films. Another stall provides video presentation of old and modern Korean music and plays while the eighth stall focuses on tourism industry.
A special feature of the Tabuk pavilion is the garlands made of roses, while Taif pavilion presented a huge carpet of roses at its gate. Visitors are also given garlands as gifts.
Bachelor youths, especially students, complained that the period of the festival was extremely short compared to the large number of events presented in it. They said single men were permitted to visit the festival only on four days but two of them were weekdays on which students and employed youths were not free to visit the event.
The police pavilion showcased devices used in combating criminal activities such as defusing explosives, finger printing machines and method of photographing crime locations and instruments used in forgery.
The pavilion officials explained to visitors the different kinds of services offered by the general police, public security, security patrols, traffic police, special forces, highway police and the public relations department.
The traffic police displayed the methods of learning driving with the help of a computer-aided program.
A number of guns and other weapons used in crimes, narcotic and liquor detection devices were also on display.
