Crown Prince Camel Festival

The Crown Prince Camel Festival is a camel race held in Taif Governorate in Makkah Al-Mukarramah Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was launched by the General Sports Authority (currently the Ministry of Sport) in its first edition in 2018, with the participation of athletes from around the world. The race track consists of seven lanes, with a width of forty m at the starting point and twelve m at the finish line, and is the largest in terms of the number of laps.

The Ministry of Sport chose Taif Governorate as the location for the Crown Prince Camel Festival due to its historical status. It is one of the oldest camel fields in the Arab world. Taif also includes natural features, making it a suitable place to host the event. Camel racing is an authentic Arab sport practiced and inherited by Arabs for ages. The Crown Prince Camel Festival took a keen interest in this sport, thus reinforcing national and cultural aspects, in addition to achieving economic and cultural benefits to the Kingdom.

The Crown Prince Camel Festival, held on the grounds at Taif Camel Square, aims to enhance the status of camel heritage in Saudi, Islamic, and Arab culture. The festival also reflects the cultural depth of the Kingdom, encourages community participation, and enhances the national spirit. Moreover, the festival is an economic and tourism support and driving force in the Kingdom.

On September 21, 2018, the Crown Prince Camel Festival made its mark in the Guinness Book of World Records. It claimed the title of the largest camel sports festival globally, boasting 11,178 camels participating in the race.

The second edition of the festival in 2019 witnessed the breaking of its previous record as the world's largest camel racing festival. That year, approximately 13,377 camels participated in the races. Additionally, the festival introduced the world's largest camel model, which entered the Guinness World Records in mid-2019.

In its third edition in 2021, the event surpassed the previous records set in the two prior editions. The number of participating camels reached approximately 14,843, with 7,870 competing in the preliminary phase and 6,973 in the final phase. In 2022, the fourth edition of the festival recorded the participation of 17,669 camels, thereby breaking the record set the previous year.

A group of contestants at the Crown Prince Camel Festival in Taif. (Saudipedia)

The Crown Prince Camel Festival 2022 was launched on July 23, 2022, at Taif Camel Square, and continued for forty-four days, with the participation of competitors from different countries. The preliminary stage of the race was divided into several categories: al-Mafarid, al-Haqaiq, al-Laqai, al-Jadha, al-Thunai, al-Hil, al-Zamul, and the Marathon round. The final stage consisted of the following categories: al-Haqaiq, al-Laqai, al-Jadha, al-Thunai, al-Hil, al-Zamul, and rounds for the icons of al-Hil and al-Zamul. Altogether, these rounds constituted approximately 591 individual races, spread out over the racing days. The festival's prizes amounted to about SAR56 million, including the Crown Prince's Sword Award worth SAR1 million. As for the distances of the runs, they ranged between two and six km.

The fifth edition of the Crown Prince Camel Festival in 2023 witnessed for the first time the holding of the International Women’s Marathon, in cooperation with the International Camel Racing Federation (ICRF), with financial prizes amounting to SAR155,000. The festival’s prizes for 2023 amounted to about SAR57 million, including the Crown Prince’s Sword Award reaching SAR1.750 million, after raising the value of its prizes from SAR1 million for the first place holder of the Golden Sword, SAR500,000 for the second place holder of the Silver Sword, and SAR250,000 for the third place holder of the Bronze Sword. In this edition, the festival broke the record in its successive editions in terms of the number of rides.