The Festival is returning to Masdar City for a two-day family celebration, bringing to a close the latest edition of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
The fun-packed weekend, which will be hosted on Friday, 18 and Saturday, 19 January at Masdar City, will bring the public to learn about sustainability and how to make more environmentally-conscious decisions.
“The Festival is the highlight community event of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and welcomes about 8,000 people to Masdar City each year. The event demonstrates the importance of sustainability awareness to the public and helps us to achieve our commitment to engage residents and visitors to show them how they can bring sustainability to life through fun and exciting activities. It is an important part of our continued engagement with the wider UAE community,” said Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director, Sustainable Real Estate at Masdar.
“The Festival is the ideal event to showcase Masdar City’s tolerant and diverse community and we have expanded our activities to celebrate the Year of Tolerance. We look forward to welcoming the entire community to the event,” he added.
This year’s festival at Masdar City has been expanded to focus on the six pillars of ADSW – Energy and Climate Change, Biotechnology, Future Mobility, Tech for Good, Space, Water – as well as Digitalisation and Youth.
The pillars will be reflected across The Festival’s seven thematic zones; the Energy Cluster, Sustainability Cluster, Water and Agriculture Cluster, Urban Community, Market Place, Main Stage and Masdar Park.
The clusters will help raise awareness about renewable energy, waste reduction and innovative ways of tackling water consumption through fun and educational workshops. The Main Stage will have performances and educational talks about sustainability.
Local producers will be selling organic goods and handcrafted gifts at the Market Place, while the Urban Community will have workshops and activities aimed at highlighting the Year of Tolerance, sustainability awareness and recycling, and how to build environmentally friendly structures, among others.
The Eco-Villa at Masdar City will host the Home Farming Showcase throughout the event, which will demonstrate how UAE residents can become more self-sufficient in meeting their everyday food needs. The showcase is part of a collaboration that was launched by the UAE Office for Food Security, Masdar and UAE-based agriculture specialists Madar Farms.
Alongside the Home Farming Showcase, the Eco-Villa will also host an exhibition of smart home farming technologies and products, alongside educational materials on sustainable agriculture, food security and agri-technology.
Launched during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2017, the Eco-Villa pilot project at Masdar City incorporates various water and energy saving technologies. The 405 square-metre residential property is the first villa to achieve a 4-Pearl rating under the Estidama Pearl Building Rating System (PBRS), introduced by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities.
It uses around 72 percent less energy and 35 percent less water than a typical villa of the same size, while displacing an estimated 63 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
Masdar Park will host activities catered to both adults and children. The park is also home to food and beverage outlets housed in recycled shipping containers, a playground, basketball courts, football pitches and the 5.6 kilometre Al Mamsha running and walking trail.