Dates Festival opens on Thursday at Souq Waqif 11 Jul 2021 - 8:43 File photo used for representation only. Sidi Mohamed/ The Peninsula The ‘6th Fresh Local Dates Festival 2021’ will start on Thursday (July 15) at Souq Waqif and will continue for two weeks, a senior official at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has said. “The participating farms were chosen based on the quality they have to showcase in the exhibition. There will be diversity in the quality of the offered dates, especially considering the competition between the exhibitors. The farms have benefited from the previous editions to improve the quality,” said Ahmed A Yafei, Head of The Department of Agricultural Guidance and Services, Department of Agricultural Affairs of the MME.