Protected: Raid at Midnight: The Cost of Entertainment in Saudi Arabia

[...] Raid at Midnight: The Cost of Entertainment in Saudi Arabia … [...]

The cushion “thingys” are called Gao Takiyey or takiyas. As far as I can remember.

Guitarded is better than guitarminator.

And such an intense reaction to this “little” concert? Wow.

They might be something else in Arabic!

lol, I guess the guy knew what he was doing then

The Religious police does tend to overreact to things like this. That’s why everybody is so afraid of them.

The kinds of reactions I saw (some girls were actually sobbing) were vastly out of proportion due to the perception of these guys not being lenient.

Dear Nidal,

Thanks for the pics.

do you mind if I post this or link to it via facebook?

Hi AbdulMouhsen, Thanks for stopping by And no I don’t mind you linking to the blog.. In fact, I will be grateful if you do

Go ahead and link

The fine line is selling tickets. Such gatherings are ‘private’ unless you ‘sell’ tickets.

The way artists are being shortchanged, I’m all for a few events being nabbed (and as I heard no artist / attendee got any legal harassment)

Caesar, Is that how its legally classified in Saudi Arabia? That these gatherings are ok until money is involved? That would very interesting!

But I do agree with you on the artist compensation. Some of the performances I saw up there that night were amazing. I could easily see them making good money anywhere else in the world.

Hello hehe.um..can i just correct something??? ^^” sorry

um the guy with the glasses isnt guitarted..the one with the pick in his mouth is guitarted ^_^ Im just saying because i know them both LOL

^^” again sooo sorryyy but i haad to because of the people who are reading wont think that the man with the glasses is guitarted..

SEE i didnt mention names B)

Why are you sorry? Thank you for catching it I’ve made the changes

And impressive, no you didn’t mention names We’re all anonymous here ::whistles::

I didnt know things were still like this back in the desert. I heard the power of the Heyáa have lessened a bit since the 90s, no?

They have weakened.. Quite seriously in fact. Public opinion is against them now given the prevalence of media in the Kingdom. There have been some high profile cases of mistreatment.

Thing change slowly in Saudi, but they do change. A mixed attendance comedy show would’ve been unheard of a year ago but today its a normal occurrence. Women can now travel without a guardian and the King has already given his approval to let them drive ‘should society approve’. Baby steps, but in the right direction

Sorry for being so lame ^^”

I was there and it was indeed pretty scary. it was sad they had to stop, was such an amazing night but
I’m actually still surprised we all made it home without getting caught. it could have been a lot worse.

@Bella, who’s lame? and stop being sorry!! :O

@GB, what’s the worst they could’ve done anyways. The most the do is hold you for a few hours, call your parents/guardian, and then let u go. It’s kindof pointless.

awesome work bud.

really amazing pics, keep it up!

but actually, ” The crowd forced the poor guy to play a third song ” not a second song

He was that good!!

I was going to go to this!
I don’t like the religious police -_-
Why can’t they just LEAVE. US. ALONE.?
Can I link this on Facebook?

Aiden, thanks! I’ll fix that right away… and yes he was THAT good Loved his show.

LuLu, I don’t think anyone really likes them :s And you would’ve been fine if you did come. Other than the initial scare, noone got caught and no arrests were made. The concert was mostly done anyways.

And yes, I would not mind if you linked me I would prefer it in fact!

*linked* =D

http://www.facebook.com/LailaMAL?ref=profile

I’m glad that no one got arrested, but WHY the scare?
They should really have something better to do -_-
Thinking about going to Clash of Irons II on July 30, think they’ll be there too :s?

And thank *you* for that

I think all of us are wondering at this point why they don’t have something better to do ;P

As for Clash of Irons, they’re organizing it a little better in that they haven’t yet released venue locations. Which means it will be harder for the Hey2a to get the drop on us this time around. I might end up there myself on July 30th.. unsure for now

Hi. Will link this up on my FB page as well. I’m new in the country and my friends have been asking how things are here particularly with the Muttawa. This was my first ever “peek” at a public event. (Very curious how it was like.) This definitely is one good story to tell. I was actually hoping someone would write about it or at least post photos. I got both, thanks to you! =)

Go ahead Negrense! And thanks for stopping by!

Though you should know, things like this aren’t really that common in Saudi Arabia. Happens every now and then, but the people return to do it again. And this time, noone was arrested.

Hope you’re getting by well in Saudi, theres a lot more to do here than initially meets the eye.

[...] Let me be clear, I have nothing against such parties. I am not social by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy a good party, and as we can see in the video apparently the guys were having loads of fun. Good for them, but the question is: why they can shake their bums freely in a fancy hotel like it’s 1999, but those who want to enjoy a concert of acoustic rock get raided by the Hay’a? [...]

I wouldn’t say “no one likes the Haya” so much, there hasn’t been a sort of poll or anything to indicate support or lack thereof towards them.

It all really depends on which people you spend your time with that colors your perception of what public opinion is. I for one have never seen anyone over the age of 20 who hates them (and met plenty under that age that support them as well).

So in short, no one really knows.

I didn’t say “no one likes the Haya” I said they tend to be disliked. And I would admit that it would be a subjective sentence.

That said, I also did not use the word “hate” as it would be too strong. I don’t hate them, and I hope I didn’t come across as such. I actually support their overall function, but question their methods and hard-lined stance at times. And as is evident from the popular media, there is a large number of those residing here that do the same

Sounds like another interesting night in Saudi Arabia! Glad all turned out ok this time.

re: Almost a Rock Band – After the initial info/PRI haven’t heard anything else about how that all went…still on track? I have to admit, every time I see a bigger wild-haired guy in a gutra I look twice and wonder if he’d be the perfect star for you guys! lol Saw one on a billboard in Khobar the other day that would be great!

Anyway. Thanks for dropping over to SGIME. I followed you back here, and am really impressed with the photography – wow! Put’s my efforts with a Nikon to shame.

Take care – SGIME

And thank YOU for stopping by here And I’m glad you liked the pictures!

Sadly, I’ve picked a hobby that puts me in the thick of things more often than not. Just last week I was at an event that was linked to ‘Satanism’ (A quick google translate fixes the language problem in a jiffy. I will probably put up a blog post about it tonight.

re: Almost a rock band. We’re doing final rehearsals this weekend (tomorrow!) and we’ve already shot a couple of scenes. If you run into a couple of wild haired guys in Khobar, it might be our lead actors! They live in Khobar and Dhahran!

[...] month in Riyadh, local acoustic guitarists gathered for a concert at a private compound, as musicians are wont to do in Saudi Arabia (where public concerts are like [...]