Riyadh Season

Riyadh Season (Arabic: موسم الرياض) is a state-sponsored annual entertainment and sports festival, part of the larger Saudi Seasons initiative held since 2019 from October to March during winter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh Season
موسم الرياض
A drone art of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman during the kick-off of 2021 Riyadh Season
BeginsOctober
EndsMarch
Location(s)Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Country Saudi Arabia
Founded11 October 2019
Organized byGeneral Entertainment Authority
National Events Center
SponsorsSaudia Cargo
Spring Rose Floristry
Bolt
Part ofSaudi Seasons
Websiteriyadhseason.sa

Overview

First unveiled by the General Entertainment Authority in accordance with the Saudi Vision 2030 in October 2019,[1][2] the festival brought unprecedented sports and entertainment themes in Riyadh.[3][4][5]

According to the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, the government generated 6 billion Saudi Riyals in revenues from the first edition of the festival in 2019.[6] After maximizing the capacity in the second edition in 2021, the opening ceremony of the festival was attended by 750,000 people in the boulevard district, which included a parade, fireworks and a concert by Pitbull. [7]

Riyadh Season 2019

The first edition of the festival was launched on 11 October 2019 and was set to end on 15 December, but it was extended to January 2020 after the number of visitors exceeded 10 million. It included 100 events that took place at 12 different zones:[8]

  1. Riyadh Boulevard
  2. Riyadh Front
  3. Riyadh Car Exhibition
  4. Riyadh Winter Wonderland
  5. Riyadh Sports Arenas
  6. Diplomatic Quarters
  7. Al-Murabaa
  8. Al-Malazz
  9. Wadi Namar
  10. Riyadh Beat
  11. Riyadh Safari
  12. Riyadh Sahara

Riyadh Season 2021

The second edition of Riyadh Season was launched on 20 October 2021 and lasted until the end of March 2022. It lies in an area measuring 5.4 million square meters in which it hosts more than 7,000 events at 14 different zones.[9]

  1. Riyadh Boulevard
  2. VIA Riyadh
  3. Combat Field
  4. Riyadh Winter Wonderland
  5. Riyadh Front
  6. Al-Murabaa
  7. Riyadh Safari
  8. Al-Athriyah
  9. Riyadh Oasis
  10. The Groves
  11. Nabd al-Riyadh
  12. Zaman Village
  13. al-Salam Tree
  14. Khalooha

Riyadh Season 2022

The third edition of Riyadh Season was launched on 21 October 2022 and lasted until March 2023. This included 8,500 activity days. This season had a principal of 15 zones in the Riyadh Boulevard and represented many cultures such as:

  1. America
  2. France
  3. Greece
  4. Italy
  5. India
  6. China
  7. Spain
  8. Morocco
  9. Mexico.

The 2022 Riyadh Season also included Riyadh Season Cup, a friendly football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Riyadh XI (combined Al Hilal and Al Nassr all-star team) held at King Fahd International Stadium on 19 January 2023. The game received global attention as the game pitted Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two of the greatest football players in the world and the subject of intense debate, directly against each other for the first time since 2020, as Messi plays for PSG and Ronaldo recently joined Al Nassr days prior to the friendly match. PSG won the match 5-4.

Riyadh Season 2023

The fourth edition of Riyadh Season will be launching on 28 October 2023 with a brand new identity, new tagline ("big time") and title sponsorship from SNB. The opener event, Battle of Baddest, featuring Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou, will be held at Boulevard Hall on the same day.

This year's Riyadh Season will be marked with the addition of Boulevard Hall, an indoor arena with FIFA- and AFC-compliant football pitch capable of hosting various types of events with more than 40,000 spectators in attendance (27,000 for football matches). It will be renamed to Kingdom Arena in January 2024 and serve as the new home ground of Al Hilal.

The following events will take place as part of 2023 Riyadh Season:

Riyadh Season secured front-of-shirt sponsorship with Serie A club AS Roma, worth €8 million per year, to promote its series of events and Saudi tourism globally.

See also
  • @HACK, a cybersecurity and hacking convention that is annually held during Riyadh Season

References
  1. Wilson, Josh. "Saudi Arabia To Invest $64 Billion In Its Entertainment Sector". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  2. "Quality of Life". Vision 2030. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  3. "Riyadh Season kicks off with a bang as WWE Crown Jewel returns to Saudi Arabia". Arab News. 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  4. "Al-Murabba welcomes visitors with music, food and more for Riyadh Season". Arab News. 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  5. "BTS: K-pop band perform in Saudi Arabia despite criticism". BBC News. 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  6. "Saudi Arabia's Entertainment Blowout is Twice as Big This Year". Bloomberg.com. 21 October 2021.
  7. "Pitbull brings the party to Riyadh Season's glittering opening ceremony". The National. 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  8. "Saudi Arabia: All you need to know about Riyadh Season". gulfnews.com. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  9. "Riyadh Season 2021 kicks off in Saudi Arabia's capital". Al Arabiya English. 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2022-01-08.

[1]

  1. https://blog.wego.com/riyadh-season/#:~:text=and%20Riyadh%20Front.-,What%20events%20can%20we%20expect%20for%20Riyadh%20Season%202022%3F,for%20this%20year's%20Riyadh%20Season.
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