It’s Carnival Time in Bahrain

The city of Manama will resonate with music and the streets and skies will be filled with light and colour for the ‘Yalla Bahrain! Spectacular’, tomorrow evening, Saturday March 11. This event, which is absolutely free to attend, will be a triumphant finale to the month-long calendar of cultural and community events supporting the 2006 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

At 4pm the seafront Diplomatic Area of the city will see the start of the Yalla Bahrain! Spectacular with a street parade and carnival, the police marching band will lead off from the front of the Diplomat Radisson Hotel, heading a cavalcade reflecting the vibrant community of Bahrain.

There will be 500 local schoolchildren wearing traditional Bahraini and Formula One-inspired costumes, further performers will include 20 extravagant large-scale masquerade costumes, 40 traditional Arabic dancers, 60 local girls in traditional Bahraini costume, 40 Jollaner dancers, six stilt walkers, six traditional musicians and 10 flag dancers together with two spectacular floats – one themed on Bahrain’s heritage and the other celebrating the arrival of Formula One.

Once underway this feast for the eyes and ears will make its way down to the seafront splendour of the King Faisal Highway then run between the Shaikh Isa bin Salman Causeway and Shaikh Hamad Causeway before returning to the seafront at the exquisite Shaikh Salman Bridge a little after 5pm.

Here the Carnival and the public will gather to experience the rest of the entertainment together. A parade of ornate, giant mahogany costumes will precede the opening address and then a 10-minute break will follow at 17:40 to respect Prayer Time. Thereafter the mahogany costumes will return to herald the start of the evening performance, with flag jugglers being followed by a musical multimedia show on the Bahraini gate that will portray the history of Bahrain in brilliant light projection.

Fire dancers will then take the stage to perform their breathtaking feats of bravery, agility and performance art before the grand finale. Above Manama the skies will be filled with a stadium of light with laser projections to accompany one of the largest firework displays ever seen in Bahrain. Closing at 7pm, the event will leave the Kingdom of Bahrain thrilled as never before, ready for the race and the drama of the 2006 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.