Yanbu Flower Festival – Guinness World Record

Every year in March and April, Yanbu holds the Yanbu Flower Festival to welcome the Spring Season. If you can drive down to Yanbu during this time, I highly recommend that you do.

This year, the Yanbu Flower Festival was from 16th March to the 8th of April 2017. If you’ve missed it this time… don’t worry it will be back next year.

I shared details about the festival on my Instagram and Facebook pages but today, I am writing this post to tell all those who cannot visit, what it is.

Yanbu Flower Festival had the largest carpet of flowers in the world this year. They set the Guinness world record again this year by breaking their own record of 2014. How awesome is that?!

I took my kids to see the festival this weekend. What we saw was even more cool than we had ever imagined. It is beautiful! A fantastic display of seasonal flowers plus exhibits about recycling and nature.

Here are a few pictures from our trip. Scroll right to see more.

The largest carpet of flowers in the world Guinness World Records -March 2017. . . This where I had gone this weekend. . From my previous post about deserts, I hope you can see why it is a world record! Every year in March and April, they create this flower display in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. It is spring festival of flowers. They broke their own record of 2014 by making the logo of the Saudi Vision 2030. . . My first response when I heard about it was ‘what’s so unique about that??’ Well… I got my answer when I got there! . . It is not a field or a farm. It is an area that has been covered by seasonal flowers for decoration/display purpose only. These flowers in a few months time will whither away due to our extreme summers. They made this huge ‘garden’ in the middle of the desert! It is to welcome the Spring season… For recreation… whatever you’d like to call it! . . It is beautiful! More to come in a blog post because… I can keep on blabbing about it all day!! ?? scroll ?? to see more pictures . Did I tell you it’s beautiful..?! More pictures coming up … ❤ #jeddahmom #mkbkids #guinessrecord #yanbuflowers #multiculturalblogs #yanbeatfest #yanbu #whereintheworld #nationalgeographic

A post shared by Aysh | Mom+Lifestyle Blogger (@jeddahmom) on Apr 2, 2017 at 4:53am PDT

About Yanbu City:

Yanbu is located 370 kilometers north of Jeddah on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. It is more known as the Industrial city but the climate is relatively more pleasant than in Jeddah so you will see more greenery around. Yanbu is made up of three smaller cities Yanbu al Sinaiyyah, Yanbu al Bahr and Yanbu al Nakhl.

Yanbu al Sinaiyyah, is the Industrial city run by the Royal Commission in collaboration with ARAMCO. It is a planned city that has been built to accommodate those working in the refineries. It is built somewhat like a settlement. You will find that it is more modern in appearance and well planned. Yanbu al Sinaiyya is more commonly known as the Royal Commission and it is planned to look like the American towns.

Yanbu al Bahr is the original town. It looks and feels more like the other cities in Jeddah.

Yanbu al Nakhl is the coastal resort town with beautiful beaches perfect for a weekend away.

What is Yanbu Flowers Festival all about:

Every year, the different towns in Saudi Arabia hold spring festivals. It is like a fair with lots of festivities. The larger cities get a face lift with new landscaping and tree plantations. Yanbu Flower festival has been happening every year for the past 14 years. This year, they created the largest carpet of flowers in the world to usher in Spring.

These flowers are not naturally present. Until recently, they were using the corniche in the Royal Commission to decorate but this year, a special venue was allotted for the festival. The festival was also larger with more activities this year.

It takes about 2 months to create this ‘garden’ and it lasts for just over a month. Saudi Arabia is a desert with no green natural vegetation. Flowers don’t grow here. But we do want to see flowers around us too. This flower festival is a beautiful way to enjoy Spring!

The largest carpet of flowers/plants is 16,134.0 m² (173,665 ft² 115 in²), and was created by Yanbu Flower Festival (Saudi Arabia), in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, on 14 March 2017.

The carpet of flowers comprises some 1.8 million flowers of 14 different types. The Yanbu Flower Festival is hosted by the Royal Commission of Yanbu. The carpet itself is designed to look like the logo of the Saudi Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia announced its 2030 Vision last year and this carpet was symbolic that together we can overcome our challenges to make Saudi Arabia the ‘garden of our dreams’ that we desire.

Recycle Garden

This year, the Yanbu Flowers Festival also hosted other activities to promote awareness among the masses. One of these was the Recycling Garden.

At the moment, there is not much recycling activities going on in Saudi Arabia. Although some of us at the personal level strive to help our environment but still there isn’t as much as is needed on the public level. Yanbu Flowers had an area exhibiting the various ways to upcycle materials. Here are a few pictures for you to see. Scroll right for more pictures.

The Recycling Garden at the Yanbu Flowers Festival. . More highlights from the Festival. They had an exhibition to promote recycling and educate the masses. Some very interesting ideas on how you can use tyres, pellets, oil barrels and plastic to make gardening furniture… scroll for pictures. ?? . #yanbuflowers #jeddahmom #mkbkids #recycling #earthday #saudiarabia #sepco #yanbu #upcycling

A post shared by Aysh | Mom+Lifestyle Blogger (@jeddahmom) on Apr 2, 2017 at 6:06am PDT

Butterfly Garden

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Butterfly exhibit at the festival. I have never seen a butterfly garden in a Saudi Arabia before. On our recent trip to the US, we had visited one at the San Antonio Zoo for the first time and my kids had loved it. I had wished we could start one here at home but…

This was awesome!

At the Butterfly Garden at Yanbu Flowers this weekend! My hubby teaching the kids to hold the Butterfly. How cool is that??! . I was afraid to touch them… ??? . Tell me… would you? . . #mkbkids #jeddahmom #butterfly #sciencetrip #learning #nature #gardens #exhibition #yanbu #saudiarabia

A post shared by Aysh | Mom+Lifestyle Blogger (@jeddahmom) on Apr 3, 2017 at 12:13pm PDT

It wasn’t very big and they didn’t have as many butterflies as were required for the crowd going in but it was a very good initiative. They had some giant butterflies too as well as some very unique ones. My children absolutely loved it!

Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy.

This years Yanbu Flower Festival has ended but it will be back next year. If you are in Jeddah or in and around Yanbu, I highly recommend that you visit it!