Liwa Date Festival is an annual fixture on Abu Dhabi’s cultural calendar, and promotes UAE culture and heritage while supporting the agriculture sector through celebration of the date palm in Abu Dhabi.

The versatile date palm and its fruit have fulfilled the dietary and other needs of generations of desert communities, such as those in the United Arab Emirates. The date fruit is highly nutritious, while the trunk, fronds and other parts of the tree were traditionally used in buildings, in handicrafts and tools. The Liwa Date Festival highlights these important attributes of the date palm. It also features the latest in agricultural practices and facilitates exchange of expertise on the best ways to produce the highest quality dates.

The festival is one of Abu Dhabi’s most significant heritage events and tourist attractions and highlights the many ways in which dates have impacted the cultural, heritage and economic life of the country. It provides a great place for visitors to learn about dates and to sample the most popular date varieties grown in the United Arab Emirates.

The festival’s main event is the competition for the ‘Best Date Fruit’. Emirati farms vie for the title of ‘Best Date Grower’.

There also are date auctions, where dates can sell for more than AED 6,000 (USD 1,650) per kilo; lectures on date farming; poetry evenings; and an exhibition space for farming equipment and date products.