Record Number of Kids Flock to ‘Nakhool City’

A record number of children have flocked to ‘Nakhool City’ at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIECC) to enjoy the action-packed fun-filled activities lined up as part of the Bahrain Summer Festival 2012. Since the Festival kicked off last week, ‘Nakhool City’ has witnessed a continuous stream of children and adults arriving from around the region to enjoy the cultural, educational and fun activities. At ‘Nakhool City’ children's workshops and activities have been customised in order to enhance their skills and complement educational curricula. Some of the workshops include: a professional photo camp for youth entitled ‘Picturing Manama’; a puppet camp led by professional puppeteers from the Centre for Puppetry Arts USA; a computerised Lego workshop; amazing art workshops led by young Bahraini artists; ‘Fun with Science,’ a hands-on experiment-based workshop; and a special dance and music programme led by distinguished Australian performer, Ben Nicholas. Throughout the duration of the Bahrain Summer Festival ‘Nakhool City’ will be open from 2pm to 7pm daily. Organized by the Ministry of Culture under the slogan “Manama, City of Joy” the festival also offers a wide variety of exciting, artistic and cultural shows by international artists. Premiered for the first time in the Middle East the fantastic Slava’s SNOWSHOW ran fully packed during the first week of the Festival. The upcoming shows include: the Wooden Circus by Karramoto; renowned Turkish musician, Omar Faruk Tekbilek; Saudi rapper Qusai aka Don Legend the Kamelion in collaboration with DJ Outlaw and Flipperachi; a concert by the young local talent, Hala Alturk, and performances of the West End musical and family favourite, The Sound of Music. Tickets for the Bahrain Summer Festival are exclusively available at Virgin Megastore at Bahrain City Center or electronically through Virgin Megastore's website virginmegastore.me. Tickets will also be sold at the venues where the events will take place if seats are still available. Ticket prices for the shows range from BD2 to BD10 with events at Nakhool City being free of charge. The Ministry of Culture has also obtained special rates and promotional offers with a number of leading Bahrain hotels for visitors and tourists during the month-long festival. The Ministry is grateful for the support of all the festival’s sponsors, namely, the Sheraton Hotel, Intercontinental Regency Hotel, Crowne Plaza, Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Gulf Hotel, Ritz Carlton Bahrain, Gulf Air, Seef Mall, Bahrain City Centre, Al Ayam newspaper, Al Watan newspaper and Saudi newspaper, Okaz. Further information about the Bahrain Summer Festival and its programmes are available on the website www.bahrainsummer.bh as well as the hotline +973 8000 8089 in addition to the following social media channels: Twitter: @bahrainsummer12 Facebook: facebook.com/bahrainsummer About the Bahrain Summer Festival Held under the slogan "Manama, City of Joy”, the Bahrain Summer Festival 2012 is the fourth edition of this annual event which aims to bring multi-cultural entertainment to residents and tourists alike. The month-long festival caters to family tastes with musical performances and educational, cultural and artistic events. Shows include Slava’s SNOWSHOW, Aeternum by Los Vivancos, the Wooden Circus and Omar Faruk Tekbilek & Ensemble to name a few. The festival is represented by its mascot “Nakhool”, a character symbolizing Bahrain’s ancient history in addition to the importance of the environment in local tradition. “Nakhool” will be hosting a city that features a variety of cultural, entertainment, and educational activities every day for the duration of the festival. Organized by the Ministry of Culture, this year the festival’s programme falls in line with the diverse and innovative year-long programme of Manama, the Capital of Arab Culture 2012. Undertaken by the Arab League under the auspices of the UNESCO Cultural Capitals Programme, every year a different Arab capital is awarded the opportunity to engage in a cultural dialogue with local and regional audiences. Manama was elected as the Capital of Arab Culture in a meeting of Arab ministers of culture in 2004. The Bahrain Ministry of Culture has developed an innovative agenda for the year, which seeks to invite Arabs to discover the cultures, heritages and identities of different parts of the Arab world. The year-long programme for Manama, the Capital of Arab Culture 2012 is broken up into 12 different cultural themes according to the months of the year and is designed to foster an environment of multidisciplinary learning with an appeal to all sectors of society. For more information visit the website: www.bahrainsummer.bh