In this post, I’m sharing my clicks of Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival, Abu Dhabi. We visited it on 15th January, 2021.

The Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival is a cultural festival that takes place annually in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This year, it was held from 20th November, 2020 till 20th February, 2021. The pavilions named after various countries of the world, housed stalls, selling and showcasing traditional items of the respective countries.

When I saw these pavilions at Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival, I felt they looked similar to those in Global Village, Dubai. Those amongst the readers, who might have visited Global Village, would mostly agree to this.

As we approached the festival site, we could see the entire place, including the parking areas, decorated with United Arab Emirates (UAE) Flags.

I felt the façade of the festival site resembled an olden day UAE fort. But, I’m not sure if it was one, though!

This festival is named after the Founding Father of the UAE, His Highness late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Now, you all must be wondering who Sheikh Zayed was? Let me tell you a bit about him!: Sheikh Zayed was born in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1918 and was named after his famous grandfather, known as ‘Zayed the Great’. He became the President of UAE since its formation in 1971, for which he played an instrumental role, and continued to assume this post till his death, in 2004. He was also the Ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi since 1966. The year 2018 was known as the ‘Year of Zayed’ to mark hundred years since the birth of the Founding Father of the UAE.

According to this article, abudhabiculture.ae/en/events/sheikh-zayed-festival-2020, the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival was recently selected among the five most important cultural events in the world.

In my previous post (Happy New Year 2021! – Memories Thru Lens), I had told you all that UAE recently bagged two Guinness World Records. For those who did not read my previous post, and are wondering for what reason the UAE got the two Guinness World Records, it’s because, first, for show casing the longest 35 minutes of fireworks launched from 16 towers and second, for the longest Girandola fireworks show in the world! Both of these have been done at the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival, Abu Dhabi, for New Year 2021!

The pathway inside the festival area was decorated like this:

There was also one Burj Khalifa replica on which changing light effects were continuously projected:

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These were the pavilions of a few countries:

I felt the Indian Pavilion was made to resemble the Taj Mahal in India.

The photo below shows a closer view of the top part of the Thai Pavilion.

I know you all must be wondering that in the photos above, you only see the top part of the pavilions and not the shops and stalls. This is because it was quite crowded when we went and there were many people, so due to privacy concerns, I couldn’t share them all!

That’s all for this post! The next one is going to be great and is a special post as Memories Thru Lens turned ONE in March, 2021!

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT POST!