The story
Souq Waqif Honey Festival in Souq Waqif
Officially the International Honey Exhibition, this Souq Waqif event runs each January into February at the Eastern Square, now past its seventh edition with around 100 pavilions of local and international producers, named varieties including Sidr, Manuka, and stingless bee honey, plus an on-site testing laboratory.
Honey occupies an unusual dual role in Gulf culture, valued simultaneously as a prized culinary ingredient and as a folk-medicinal remedy, a status Sidr honey in particular has held for centuries thanks to the thorny lote trees it is drawn from across the wider Arabian and Levantine region.