{"id":9778,"date":"2022-05-23T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/?p=9778"},"modified":"2022-05-27T17:56:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T12:56:30","slug":"first-timers-regular-patrons-bid-adieu-to-a-soulful-scrf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/2022\/05\/23\/first-timers-regular-patrons-bid-adieu-to-a-soulful-scrf\/","title":{"rendered":"First-timers, regular patrons bid adieu to a \u2018soulful SCRF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Visitors to the 13<sup>th<\/sup> annual Sharjah Children\u2019s Reading Festival (SCRF) \u2013 both first-timers and regular patrons \u2013 have thanked the event\u2019s organisers for delivering an \u2018enriching experience\u2019 as they bid adieu to the 12-day cultural extravaganza yesterday (Sunday, 22 May).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The festival welcomed thousands of visitors who visited Expo Centre Sharjah to treat themselves and their families to an exciting curation of more than 1,900 cultural and literary activities. From cookery shows by celebrity chefs to popular performances by international artist groups, the lineup of daily activities had a series of seminars, workshops and talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For bibliophiles, there was an endless array of books on display by hundreds of creators, publishers, distributors and vendors from around the world while a fare of delicacies from the Middle East to Mexico enthralled the taste buds of the food connoisseurs throughout the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a combination of all the best things you can possibly imagine,\u201d said an overwhelmed Tatyana Zarudneva, 40, a Russian mum of two who made her way to the annual festival with her kids for the first time on Sunday. \u201cThere were books and then there were shows and workshops. That\u2019s something for everyone here. What more could you have asked for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, it was a very fulfilling experience for SCRF first-timer Yazan Anwar. \u201cI have worked in many festivals but never felt this good interacting with children on a daily basis,\u201d said the 21-year-old Jordanian marketing graduate who worked at the festival as a coordinator for the visiting school children. \u201cI truly enjoyed walking them into the festival premises from their school buses and back. You don\u2019t get such experiences in other festivals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fellow Jordanian Aseel Mansouri echoed similar sentiments after what was a \u2018soulful\u2019 first outing for her at the SCRF. \u201cIt\u2019s the sheer delight of seeing the excitement on the faces of the children rushing into the festival every day and then to see them carry that joy with them while headed home that warmed my heart,\u201d said the 23-year-old architectural engineering graduate Aseel, who oversaw the registration of guests at the festival every day, along with her sister Hadeel, 18, and their Turkish colleague Ecem Buzaci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year\u2019s SCRF turned out to be extra special for Pakistani publisher and distributor Saqib Tanweer too. \u201cAs publishers, we go to several literary festivals, but never have I come across a patron like I did here,\u201d said the 52-year-old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visitors to the 13th annual Sharjah Children\u2019s Reading Festival (SCRF) \u2013 both first-timers and regular patrons \u2013 have thanked the event\u2019s organisers for delivering an \u2018enriching experience\u2019 as they bid adieu to the 12-day cultural extravaganza yesterday (Sunday, 22 May). The festival welcomed thousands of visitors who visited Expo Centre Sharjah to treat themselves and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9780,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9778\/revisions\/9780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}