Klija Festival
Klija Festival is an annual event held in Buraydah City, the administrative capital of Qassim Province in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a local festival dedicated to the traditional sweet known as Klija, which is considered the official dessert of Qassim Province.
First edition of Klija Festival
The first edition of Klija Festival was launched in 2009. It serves as a catalyst for supporting the market of Klija as a local product, and promoting traditional foods and handicrafts. The festival offers its visitors an exhibition of the cultural heritage of Qassim Province.
The festival also aims to enhance economic growth for families and individuals while promoting a culture of labor, in addition to preserving the traditional heritage of Qassim Province.
Holding Klija Festival
Klija Festival is held annually at Qassim International Convention Center and Exhibition, King Khalid Cultural Center in Buraydah City, or Al-Nakhla Center in the Dates City of Buraydah. It is organized by the Qassim Chamber and supervised by the Emirate of Qassim Province.
Goals of Klija Festival
The main goals of Klija Festival include supporting productive families and providing them with better opportunities for selling, marketing, and promoting their goods. Each festival edition typically features two hundred to three hundred participating families.
Thirteenth Klija Festival
The Qassim Chamber launched the thirteenth edition of Klija Festival on January 26, 2022. Its activities and programs, held at Al-Nakhla Center in Buraydah, concluded on February 8, 2022. The festival showcased traditional foods, crafts, and handmade goods from over three hundred productive families, and commercial establishments specializing in traditional dishes and their derivatives.
The festival attracted thousands of visitors from within and outside Qassim Province, and total sales exceeded SAR3 million, with the majority going to the productive families. The event featured a competition for the best Klija product, to encourage participating families to present outstanding examples of their products, with seven categories: Klija, traditional products, sweets, baked goods, modern dishes, best productive families, and best innovative product.
Fourteenth Klija Festival
The fourteenth edition of Klija Festival was held from January 26 to February 12, 2023, at Al-Nakhla Center in the Dates City in Buraydah. It attracted visitors from across and beyond Saudi Arabia. The festival was extended twice, increasing its original ten-day duration by eight additional days. Around two hundred families participated, along with the "Creative Buraydah" booth. Other provinces also took part by presenting products related to Klija production. The number of visitors exceeded thirty thousand daily.
Fifteenth Klija Festival
The fifteenth edition of Klija Festival was held from February 8 to February 27, 2024, at King Khalid Cultural Center in Buraydah City. A total of 217 productive families participated in this edition. The average daily attendance reached twenty thousand visitors, and daily sales averaged SAR1 million, totaling SAR20 million over the twenty days of the festival.
Sources
Emirate of Qassim Province.
Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Ministry of Interior.
Al-Saudiya Channel.
Qassim Chamber.