Taif: Under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the eighth Crown Prince Camel Festival will kick off on Thursday. Organized by the Saudi Camel Sports, the festival will run from September 3 to 13 at the Taif Camel Square in Taif Governorate, with prize money exceeding SAR50 million.
According to Saudi Press Agency, on the occasion, Minister of Sport and President of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SOPC) Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to HRH the Crown Prince for sponsoring the festival's eighth edition. The sport minister said HRH the Crown Prince's patronage reflects the attention and support extended to the sports sector by the Kingdom's leadership. He added that it demonstrates HRH the Crown Prince's commitment to supporting camel racing and preserving its status as an integral part of Saudi Arabia's cultural and national heritage.
He said the patronage will also help further develop the sport, strengthen its presence locally and internationally, reinforce Saudi Arabia's leading position across various sports, and contribute to achieving the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. The festival will feature 248 races, with participants competing for the Crown Prince Camel Festival Cup, which carries a prize of SAR500,000.
The previous edition achieved notable milestones, earning four Guinness World Records as the world's largest camel sports festival. These included a record for the largest number of camels participating in camel races, at 21,637, while the number of participating camels increased by 93.5% compared with the inaugural edition. Across the past seven editions, the total number of participating camels exceeded 100,000.