JEDDAH: The Saudi Falcons Club opened the first King Abdul Aziz Festival of Falconry in the town of Malham, north of Riyadh, on Friday.

Covering about 650,000 square meters, the festival aims to bring together falcon fans to share experience and knowledge. Besides falcon races in the main festival arena and a falcon beauty contest, there will be exhibitions, theater entertainment and campaigns to raise awareness of the pastime and its importance to Saudi heritage.

The festival’s photographic competition, open to both amateurs and professionals, is offering big prize money. The winner will take home SR50,000, with SR30,000 and SR20,000 being awarded for second and third places respectively.

Another attraction at the festival is the cultural village, inspired by the city of Riyadh in the 1950s.

Saudi Arabia is one of the 11 top countries listed by UNESCO as home to various species of falcon and lying on the migratory route for other species.

The festival builds on the success of last month’s Saudi Falcon and Hunting Show, which attracted much attention both in the Gulf and internationally. That was also organized by the Saudi Falcons Club, which was established by royal order of King Salman and under the direct supervision of the crown prince.

400-meter races

Falconers competed in its Al-Melwah “Da’ao” 400-meter races for a chance to win prizes worth SR17 million.

Hamoud Zuman won the first race in a time of 20.720 seconds, Barghash Al-Mansouri won the second race with a time of 22.174 seconds, while Ramzan Al-Dosari came first in the third race with a time of 21.252 seconds.

The falconry festival features local and international falconers. And with 1,700 falcons registered to compete, it is the largest falconry competition in the world.

In the course of six days, Saudi falconers will go head-to-head in their stages and 240 winners will be identified. In addition, the international stage will have 120 winners over 12 races.

The “Mazayen” beauty competition, which is open to Saudi and international falconers, will be launched on Feb.1-2 in two categories.

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