For two years now, the Saudis have been hosting the Middle Beast Electronic Music Festival in the capital, Riyadh. A festival of quite enormous proportions that brings together all the musical megastars of the Arab world, but also the most glittering DJs in the world – last year it was David Guetta, this year it’s Martin Grix, Tiesto, Armin van Byrne and other hot names.
This year, despite the corona waves coming and going, the festival has been a huge success. Within four days, it was attended by more than 730,000 people, most of them young Saudi men and women, who danced to the sounds of Arab and Western music without any partitions or problems. On the first day, 180,000 people attended the festival.
The Other Saudi Arabia Without separation between men and women: more than 700,000 people participated in the “Middle Beast” music festival. Riyadh resident ‘Abd al-Majid a-Saaduni – “This would not have happened 10 years ago because we were in a period of radical Islamic religion”Replying to @The_Kiss_1987 #NightNews pic.twitter.com/dqvRLQrfSM
– News here (@kann_news) December 22, 2021
The situation of the corona in Saudi Arabia is pretty good according to reports from there, although people who have been infected with Omicron have already been identified. In any case, the sights of the young men and women dancing at the huge music event, passed less smoothly in the more conservative circles. ‘Abd al-Majid a-Saaduni, a 25-year-old trader, tells the news here how much he enjoys the festival, and he is not really thrilled by the human rights organizations’ attempts to discredit his country.
It must be said that even the elders of Saudi Arabia do not remember such sights and such openness – that its architect is none other than the Saudi heir, Muhammad bin Salman. Salman is considered the leader of the Saudi Generation Y and these days is very present compared to his father, the old King Salman, who was pushed aside.
Even Saudi elders do not remember such openness – whose architect is Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman – the leader of Saudi Generation Y
When Ben Salman looks at the profits and risks, he says to himself – on the one hand there are conservative elements in the kingdom to visit, but on the other hand there are young people, like ‘Abd al-Majid, who will feel a sense of freedom when they come to such a festival – which could take place in a European city. To this is added the bonus of the tourists, who come to such an event and after that tell how much it is worth coming to Saudi Arabia because “this is not the same extremist and conservative kingdom we were told about.”
There is also the financial matter, of course. After all, Ben Salman’s entire vision under the “2030” branding is to diversify the kingdom’s sources of income beyond oil. The entertainment and tourism industry is very significant in this regard. It is no coincidence that Ben Salman’s flagship project is the city of the future Newium on the shores of the Red Sea, which is supposed to attract waves of tourists from outside.
And although everything is rosy, so to speak, it turns out that not only the conservatives are raising an eyebrow, but also human rights organizations that have begged international artists to boycott the festival, in protest of human rights violations in the kingdom. The demons of the critical Saudi journalist who was assassinated three years ago, Jamal Khashukji, continue to haunt the regent, who is accused at least in the international arena as the one who gave the order.
Despite all the backlash, no boycotts of the festival have been observed and Saudi Arabia appears to be mature in this regard and not going backwards. The last two years have also seen performances of Mariah Kerry, the Backstreet Boys and other top-notch talents in the kingdom, alongside a Formula 1 tournament and other attractions.
Just two weeks ago, the “Red Sea” film festival was first held in Jeddah, the western coastal city. Until two years ago, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia, for decades. And yet, it must be said that there is an attempt to maintain the thin line – to move forward cautiously while maintaining the role of Saudi Arabia as the guardian of the two holy places of Islam, Mecca and the country.
The regent’s attempt is to show that this openness is not against religion, and at the same time in front of us – while Saudi Arabia still has a public refusal to normalize relations with Israel, as long as the Palestinian issue does not progress anywhere. Still, it is much easier to talk to young Saudis like our friend Riyadh, ‘Abd al-Majid, who very much hopes that next year he will also meet guys from Israel on the expansion of the Middle Beast.