Omani women preparing traditional foods and coffee at the Muscat Festival
The Muscat Festival is back in town! It runs until February 9 in Al Amerat and Naseem Park (near Seeb). We’ve only been to the Al Amerat location and it’s a lot of fun. It’s basically Oman’s county fair, and there are rides, animals, performances, vendors, fireworks, and everything else you could hope for.
There are essentially four parts to it: the heritage village (which is where we spend most of our time), the rides, the performance stages, and the exhibitor booths. The heritage village has camels, goats, Omani street food, traditional music and dancing, donkey rides, etc and is the most fun to explore. The rides are over-priced and not really suitable for toddlers.
One thing that threw me for a loop: each seated performance venue has one entrance for men and one for families. So if you’re a woman, don’t use the men-only entrance, and if you’re a dude with a family, use the family entrance. And if you’re a woman without a family, still use the family entrance (because why would you go out in public without your family?). There are also separate booths for men and women to buy entrance tickets. The lines on the women-only were nonexistent, so Nate waited with M while I bought our tickets. The tickets were super-cheap, by the way: only 200 baisa (about 50 cents) for adults and 100 baisa for kids.
There’s fried dough balls dipped in honey or chocolate, Omani crepe things, samosas and other yummy food, plus a food stand (with seating) selling biryani, corn on the cob, Omani food and shawarma in the heritage village. I think the food options there are definitely the best.
If you haven’t been yet, make sure you find time to visit the Muscat Festival by the end of the weekend!
A traditional music performance in the heritage village. The guy with the white beard is balancing a sword on his finger!
Chilling out in a traditional Omani tent
Bedouin women selling their wares. And goats.
Camels! M got to pet the one wearing the muzzle.
Every country seems to have its own version of the ubiquitous group circle dance
The men aren’t the only ones who get to dress up and perform!
There are several performance stages; this is the main one.
According to Athena 