KUWAIT: Special events are planned at the Red Fort, also called the Red Palace, for Kuwait’s national holidays in February 2025, the Standing Committee for National Holidays and Occasions said in their first planning session for next year’s holiday season held Thursday.
The announcement, which was included in a write up of the meeting published on Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA, is one of few involving the Red Palace since it was closed to the public a few years ago. The palace, which is of great historical significance to Kuwait, has been the center of restoration efforts helmed by a team of experts under the supervision of Kuwait’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters. The palace was built in 1897 to protect Al-Jahra and gains some of its significance for being the location of the Jahra Battle in 1920.
Little has been officially announced about the project, apart from a visit in July by Minister of Information and Culture Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi. At the time, the minister was briefed on the progress of the first two stages of the restoration project, including the renovation of the roads, sidewalks, terraces, gardens and parking lots. The project also includes a brand new "Arms & Armory Museum”. A timeline of the project is not publicly available, and no date has been set for the palace’s reopening. Including the fort in the committee’s plans for the February festivities indicates Minister Al-Mutairi, who chairs the committee, is confident it will be ready for visitors in time.
At the meeting, Mutairi highlighted several occasions the committee will be busy planning for in the next few months, including the GCC summit in December, and the 26th Gulf Cup football tournament, to be held from December 21, 2024 until January 1, 2025.
"We have a huge institutional memory, so it must be properly utilized to plan for these events,” Minister Al-Mutairi told KUNA. He said the committee has sought this year to involve the private sector, holding several coordination meetings with private sector representatives. There are also plans to advertise for the festivities through the information ministry’s "Platform 51”, a streaming service currently showing local content produced by the ministry, including live streaming of state media television channels. The platform is the Kuwaiti government’s answer to similar platforms which launched years ago in the region, such as ADtv and Shahid.
The committee also unveiled its logo for this year’s national festivities, according to KUNA. The committee said it decided to keep last year’s logo but chose a particular shade of blue to match the country’s official color. The color code and logo will be used across the country’s institutions, he emphasized. The celebration of Kuwait as the 2025 Arab Cultural Capital is also set to be an event to look forward to, with a flag raising ceremony and an artistic show about Kuwait’s history, the committee said.