Shop Bahrain’s Festival City opens

A multitude of visitors flocked to the Bahrain International Circuit during the weekend for the opening of the “Festival City”, the main event of kingdom’s largest shopping festival, Shop Bahrain.

The Festival City, which opened on January 18, will run for two weeks (until February 2) and includes a number of fun-filled family entertainment, a wide range of exciting activities, live performances, carnival games, outdoor market and outdoor cinema. It will also feature a daily lineup of live local bands for visitors to enjoy.

Commenting on this occasion, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, the chief executive officer of BTEA, said: “We are delighted to launch the Festival City, the main event in Shop Bahrain which aims to revitalise the tourism sector, further positioning Bahrain as the leading tourist destination regionally and internationally, as well as increase its growth in the non-oil sector that contributes to the kingdom’s National economy and the economic vision 2030.”

“We were pleased with the large number of visitors and local business owners who were interested to take part in this unique national event and we hope to offer more space for local businesses in the upcoming editions. We also expect the Festival City to attract even more visitors this year than the previous editions,” he added.

The Festival City covers over 22,000-sq-m with an outdoor market that features over 30 food vendors and 10 Bahrain-based enterprises, that will change weekly, noted said Reem Tawfiqi, head of Tourism Relations.

Entrance to Festival City is BD2 ($5.2) and includes four games; children below 4 years enter free of charge. The entrance tickets allow visitors to enjoy the line up of shows taking place at the main stage area and around the Festival City and also qualifies visitors to enter the Shop Bahrain Loyalty System for a chance to win valuable draw prizes.

The fifth edition of Shop Bahrain offers raffle draws, surprise gifts and top prizes, including 11 new cars and discounted air tickets.

Shop Bahrain is organised by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) in cooperation with a number of strategic partners including Tamkeen, Viva Bahrain and national carrier Gulf Air, as well as A.A. BinHindi Group. The Platinum Partners this year include Bin Hindi Informatics and Lulu Group.