Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) spent one billion dollars on entertainment events throughout the Kingdom during the past two months, sources familiar with the matter revealed.
The sources pointed out that popular singers and dance groups from European countries received huge amounts of money to hold concerts in the Kingdom and to promote it as a touristic destination.
Long known for its ultra-conservative mores, the kingdom has embarked on a wide-ranging program of social and economic reforms driven by its crown prince.
The country that has been better known as the birthplace of Islam than a rave capital has gone through a tremendous makeover since MBS took control of the everyday running of the kingdom in 2017. Soundstorm is an eye-catching symbol of that change.
In 2016, Saudi Arabia established the General Entertainment Authority in tandem with Vision 2030 – the crown prince’s plan to diversify its economy beyond oil, which accounts for more than half of the government’s revenue.
Among its goals was to almost double household spending on cultural and entertainment activities within the kingdom. Riyadh is now seeing more than $64 billion in entertainment investment, with a significant proportion of that going to the live music industry.
Along the same line, MBS has earlier declared the establishment of “Qiddiya project”, an entertainment megacity project on the outskirts of Riyadh.
The Qiddiya project relies on 20 international companies to design the scheme, with a total area of 334 square kilometers, at a cost of $10 billion.
MBS is also spending $1 trillion to turn Saudi Arabia into a mass-market tourist destination. A nascent cruise sector, luxury Red Sea resorts and eco-lodges in the desert are all in the works.
The Kingdom also hosted several international sports events and financed others, such as LIV Golf, which is 93% owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
MBS earlier declared the Red Sea Global with an archipelago of more than 50 untouched islands.
He also bought shares valued at about half a billion dollars each in Facebook Inc. US:FB, Walt Disney Co.
He has also bought 8% stake in world’s biggest cruise operator Carnival for $370 million, while he is looking to expand its investments in Hollywood, with a reported bid to buy $12.5 billion Warner Music.
MBS also bought a $500-million yacht in 2015 and was also reported to be the mystery buyer of a $450-million Leonardo da Vinci painting in 2017.
MBS’s Vision 2030 prides itself on offering “world-class entertainment” and says that it has organized up to 3,800 entertainment events in the country, attended by more than 80 million people.
Electronic music, strobe lights, glittered faces and hundreds of thousands of people in mixed-gender gyrations are all part of a new kind of ritual in Saudi Arabia that didn’t exist just three years ago, the report reads.
The kingdom’s Soundstorm music festival, which began in 2019, is back again for its fourth year and will start soo.
The festival is not, however, without international criticism and accusations of whitewashing the kingdom’s human rights record. Last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that performers should either “speak up” about Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations or not attend the festival at all.
“Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars hosting massive entertainment and cultural events in a deliberate (attempt) to whitewash the country’s abysmal human rights record and the Soundstorm music festival is no different,” Joey Shea, a researcher at HRW told CNN. “The creation of the country’s local entertainment industry was accompanied by waves of arbitrary arrests of dissidents, activists, human rights defenders and ordinary Saudi citizens.”
Shihabi rejects the argument that the festival whitewashes the country’s rights record, saying that it “has little to do with any global image and is purely focused on servicing local needs.”
Mdlbeast, the organizers of Soundstorm, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Some, however, argue that opening up countries to international norms and values can allow for better discussion on human rights shortcomings.
“I think there is a way for these major international events – whether that be the World Cup in Qatar or music festivals in Saudi Arabia – to help open public discourse to critical debate,” said Jacobs.
“They can help cultivate healthy criticism and discussion around human rights issues in the region,” she added, “and as the Gulf continues to solidify its position as the region’s center of gravity, I think this is what we will see.”
