Abu Dhabi's Mirfa comes alive with watersports festival

Abu Dhabi - Mirfa Watersports Festival offers a treat not only for the eyes of sports lovers but also for the admirers of heritage.

Far from the tourist-beaten track, the quiet fishing town of Mirfa has rarely the opportunity of showing off its beauty, its traditions and earning an extra dirham in the process. With trains stopping by in the future, with a new - and the first - mall being built, with a new jetty for passenger boats and a hotel aiming for four or five stars, Mirfa may become a national, if not international tourist destination by 2020. But for now, there is just one major attraction that brings thousands of people here: the 10-day annual Al Gharbia Watersports Festival.
Organised by the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee - Abu Dhabi (CPHFC), the festival takes place every year over Mirfa's 20,000 square-metre sandy beach. Last weekend, the festival just finished with big awards ceremonies, giving away over Dh4 millions in cash prizes.
A good chunk of this money went to Mirfa residents themselves, who proved to be very good athletes.
"Because Mirfa is a quiet town and residents don't have much distraction, people here really manage to focus on their training, hence there are a lot of good sportsmen from Mirfa winning competitions," said Majed Ateeq Al Muhairi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club, co-organiser of the festival.
A quiet, largely fishing town some 200 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi, Mirfa is home to 29,000 people. To keep the younger generation from moving out to Abu Dhabi seeking better employment opportunities, several development projects were announced here, but for now, the local community welcomes any financial incentive.
The annual Al Gharbia Watersports Festival is one of them. Since 2015, the festival organisers have added a traditional village to the festival, where, in addition to food caravans, children's playground area and an open-air traditional museum, a souk of 45 "huts" was set up especially for the local ladies of Mirfa to sell their handicrafts and various other products.
"One of the main aims of the festival is to help boost the economy in the Western Region. Not just Al Gharbia Watersports Festival, but also Al Dhafra Festival, Liwa Dates Festival and, more recently, Al Marzoum Specialised Area for Falconry are all contributing to improve the financial means of the local population, as well as to preserve and promote Emirati culture, traditions and heritage," said Obaid Khalfan Al Mazrouei, Director of Al Gharbia Watersports Festival and Director of Heritage Competitions at CPHFC.
Spices, typical to the Emirati cuisine, jalabiya, the colourful dresses that women in this region have worn for hundreds of years and they still do today, children's toys, oil perfumes and household items such as dhala, the Arabian coffee pot and even a photo studio were available in the souk.
"The festival is very good for us. It helps us a lot. We all make several thousand dirhams profits from selling our handicrafts or modern products," said Nadia Al Hammadi, an Emirati from Mirfa.
"All of us here in the souk actually live in Mirfa, so we all know each other, and this is also nice to have this beautiful place to gather and enjoy each other's company. It's almost like in the old days," added Nadia.
The old days are also on Mariam Al Marzooki's mind. She spent all her life in Mirfa and much of her time now, in her 60s, she fills by weaving baskets out of palm tree fronds.
"Nothing from the date palm tree goes to waste. All these baskets I made myself from the dry palm tree leaf. You cut the leaf into long thin strands and you weave them tightly into the shape you want," explained Mariam.
It takes her from two days to one week to complete one basket, depending on the size, she only charges Dh40 for the smaller ones and Dh120 for the larger baskets.
"During the festival, I managed to sell around 15 baskets. There was one European lady who bought 6 baskets alone to give away as gifts when she returns home," Mariam told Khaleej Times.
It is not just the individual folk who benefits from the festival, it is businesses too, from nearby shops to the one and only hotel in town.
"We are almost fully booked now, during the festival. We have locals, expats and overseas groups staying with us. Since we are located on the beach, right next to the festival, our guests get great view of all the watersports activities," said Amr Matar, operations manager of Mirfa Hotel.
"For now we have 114 rooms, but we are in the process of building 24 villas, plus a new restaurant and a gym. We hope they will all be operational by the time the festival returns next year," he added.
The hotel is also working to upgrade from its present three stars rating, to at least four, if not five stars.
"In general, life in Mirfa is quiet. At the hotel, though, we have tourists coming from overseas, but mostly through travel agencies. From time to time we run promotions and we get more people from Dubai or Abu Dhabi coming to stay here," said Matar.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com