Statistics from the Al-Ahsa Manufactured Dates Marketing Festival, “Oh, the sweetest dates 2024,” in its ninth edition, which concluded its activities on Saturday, March 2, and organized by Al-Ahsa Municipality in partnership with Al-Ahsa Governorate and the Al-Ahsa Development Authority, revealed that it recorded a high sales index, with an increase of 40% over the sales of the previous edition, while the The number of visitors to the festival was 2 million and 250 thousand visitors from inside and outside the Kingdom and visits by foreign delegations, while 70 performances were presented in the festival theater, including the presentation of (singing operettas, plays, folk arts), and the participation of 17 folk arts groups from Al-Ahsa, presenting various colors of folklore, and two bands. From the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Bahrain, 6,000 children benefited from the activities of the “Childhood Friendly Al-Ahsa Hall,” and the participation of 800 “volunteers, male and female,” in organizing programs and events. The mayor of Al-Ahsa, Engineer Issam bin Abdul Latif Al-Mulla, explained that the festival aims to enhance and support the marketing path in accordance with the standard specifications in terms of quality and marketing innovation for Al-Ahsa dates and the spread of its geography at the level of the Kingdom, the sister Gulf states, and the regional level, stressing that the patronage and support of His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef - Prince The Eastern Region - and the follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Talal bin Badr - Governor of Al-Ahsa - enhanced the festival’s achievement of its organization’s objectives by transforming dates from an agricultural product into an economic, investment and tourism product, in addition to the pluralism in programs and accompanying events to support the economic and marketing fields and enrich the tourism sector. Al-Ahsa, and Al-Mulla extended his thanks and appreciation to everyone who contributed to the success of the festival from the governmental and private sectors. It is noteworthy that the festival included the presentation of many events and the participation of various parties in its interactive corners, including (the date tent, which included about 52 factories and outlets for dates and their processing industries, the participation of a number of sectors in the introductory and interactive corners and pavilions, the interactive kitchen, which presented products and dishes whose components include dates, and the friendly Al-Ahsa Hall. Childhood, the traditional Al-Fraih, which houses more than 30 handicrafts through its old shops, the Abeer Al-Ahsa Fine Arts Exhibition, the Festival Theater). The festival also hosted the “Exhibition of Manuscripts and Statistical Documents,” which was held by the Saudi Historical Society in cooperation with the Scientific Committee. It is considered the first of its kind at the governorate and region levels, with the participation of about thirty participants who presented manuscripts in interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, medicine, astronomy, and history, and documents numbering more than three hundred documents. The exhibition contained Also on a number of correspondences, most notably the correspondences of the Imams of the Second Saudi State and the correspondences of the Kings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The festival witnessed the activation of the celebration of the Kingdom’s Founding Day for 3 days, and included participation in the founding march, in which national folklore was presented, as well as a performance of an operetta (Remembrance of a State) on the theater of the heritage Al-Amana Castle, in addition to a number of activities celebrating this occasion.