Muscat – The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth will organise an Omani Culture Festival 2023 from March 19 to 22 focusing on poetry and folk arts.

The festival will include poetry recitation and competition in both its popular and classical forms, as well as folk arts. Sixteen Omani poets are expected to participate in the festival, apart from poets from the GCC and Arab countries.

As for the Omani folk arts, 12 folklore groups from across Oman will present their shows that represent different form and style of group poetry and dance.

H E Sayyid Saeed bin Sultan al Busaidi, Undersecretary for Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, said that the Omani Culture Festival in its first edition will be a forum for poets, artists, lovers and connoisseurs of arts from inside and outside the sultanate. “Poetry, in both its popular and classical forms, is representative of the identity and heritage of societies. This festival is an opportunity for Omani poets to showcase their creativity, harmonising the classical and popular forms of poetry.”

The Omani folklore, said H E Busaidi, showcases the personality of citizens and reflects their interaction with the environment and society.

The festival will also include symposiums on popular and classic poetry, preserving the Omani heritage, in addition to individual and group performances by folk groups.