A Desert Capital That Decided to Become a Theme Park
The first thing that hits you about Riyadh Season isn’t the scale — though the scale is genuinely absurd. It’s the dissonance. One minute you’re driving past sand-coloured apartment blocks and half-finished construction sites, the next you’re standing in front of a neon-lit boulevard that could pass for a Dubai mall crossed with a Tokyo gaming district. The whole city feels like it’s been split-screened.
Riyadh Season runs through February 2026, and if past editions are any guide, ‘runs’ is an understatement. The 2023 edition reportedly drew somewhere north of 15 million visitors, though the exact methodology behind that number is a bit unclear. What’s not unclear is the ambition — Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority has turned this into the kingdom’s flagship cultural export, and they’re spending accordingly.
Boulevard Riyadh City: The Main Stage
Boulevard Riyadh City is where most visitors end up first, and probably where they spend the most time. It’s essentially a purpose-built entertainment district — think a massive pedestrian zone with restaurants, pop-up shops, light installations, and stages for live performances scattered across the grounds.
The restaurant situation here is genuinely interesting. You’ll find outposts of international chains alongside Saudi-owned concepts, and the quality is surprisingly uneven. Some of the high-end spots rival anything in Dubai or London; others are clearly riding the festival markup. The shawarma and grilled meat stalls along the outer edges tend to be more reliable and significantly cheaper.
Concerts happen regularly, and past seasons have pulled names like Post Malone, David Guetta, and regional stars. The lineup for 2026 gets announced in waves — follow the official Riyadh Season social accounts or check the app, because tickets for the big names disappear within hours. Not days, hours.
The Zone Situation
Here’s where it gets complicated. Riyadh Season isn’t one location — it’s multiple ‘zones’ spread across the city, each with its own theme and, confusingly, its own operating hours and ticket policies.
Via Riyadh caters to the luxury end. Fine dining, designer shops, the kind of place where you feel underdressed in jeans. The restaurants here are legitimately good but you’ll pay for it — main courses at the high-end spots start around 200-300 SAR and go up from there.
Winter Wonderland is the family zone, or at least it was in previous years. Carnival rides, game booths, the usual. It’s fun if you have kids, less so if you don’t.
Al Suwaidi Park has more of a local feel — street food, cultural performances, carnival rides at slightly lower prices. It’s less polished than Boulevard but honestly more interesting if you want to see how Saudis themselves interact with the festival.
There are usually other zones too — Combat Field for immersive experiences, pop-up zones that come and go. The full map shifts each season, so check the official app before planning your route.
Getting Around Without Losing Your Mind
The zones are far apart. This is the single most important logistical fact about Riyadh Season and somehow every official guide glosses over it. You cannot walk between them. Budget for ride-hailing (Uber and Careem both operate here) or the free shuttle buses that connect major zones during peak hours.
A few things nobody tells you upfront:
- Surge pricing on ride-hailing apps gets brutal after 11pm, especially near Boulevard. If you’re leaving a concert, expect to wait 20-30 minutes or pay double.
- Parking exists but fills up fast on weekends (Friday-Saturday in Saudi Arabia). Thursday evening is also busy.
- The metro is partially operational but doesn’t connect well to most festival zones yet. This might change — Riyadh’s transit system is still being built out.
- Google Maps is reasonably accurate for navigation. The festival app’s built-in map is… less so.
If you’re visiting multiple zones in one day, start with the one furthest from your hotel and work your way back. Saves you from being stranded at midnight in a zone with a 45-minute Uber wait.
The Weather Question and What to Actually Wear
February in Riyadh is the sweet spot, weather-wise. Daytime temps sit around 20-25°C, which is pleasant by local standards. Evenings drop to maybe 10-12°C, and the desert wind can make it feel colder than that. Bring a jacket. Not a heavy coat — a mid-weight layer you can tie around your waist during the day.
On dress code: Saudi Arabia has genuinely relaxed its requirements for tourists, especially at entertainment events. You don’t need an abaya or thobe. That said, modesty is still appreciated — shorts above the knee and sleeveless tops will get you some looks, though probably not turned away. Jeans and a t-shirt are fine everywhere.
Comfortable shoes matter more than anything else. Boulevard alone is sprawling, and you’ll easily hit 15,000 steps in a night if you’re wandering properly.
What It Actually Costs
This part is tricky because the range is enormous. Entry to most zones is free. But once you’re inside, the spending opportunities are relentless.
Street food runs 15-40 SAR per item. A sit-down meal at Boulevard’s mid-range restaurants is 80-150 SAR per person. The luxury spots at Via Riyadh, well — if you need to ask, as they say.
Concert tickets vary wildly. Some free outdoor performances exist, but ticketed shows for international acts range from 200 SAR for general admission to over 2,000 SAR for VIP packages. Theme park rides and attractions usually have separate tickets or bundled passes.
Budget travelers can do Riyadh Season on a fairly modest spend if they stick to free zones, street food, and public performances. But the place is designed to get you spending, and it’s very good at it.
For flights, it’s worth comparing a few booking platforms since Riyadh isn’t always the cheapest destination to fly into. CheapOAir and SmartFares sometimes surface decent fares on Middle Eastern routes, though I’d check directly with Saudi-based carriers too.
The Honest Caveats
Riyadh Season is impressive, but it’s not seamless. A few things worth knowing:
Alcohol is not available anywhere in Saudi Arabia. Not at the festival, not at the hotels, nowhere. If that’s a dealbreaker for your trip, you need to know this upfront.
The festival can feel oddly corporate in places. Some zones have the atmosphere of a very well-funded corporate event rather than an organic cultural happening. Boulevard has more personality than some of the newer zones, probably because it’s had more time to develop.
Crowds on weekends are genuinely intense. The Friday-Saturday surge isn’t a minor inconvenience — it can mean 30-minute queues for food stalls and packed walkways where moving becomes difficult. Weekday evenings (Sunday through Wednesday) are dramatically calmer.
Some advertised events don’t materialise, or change dates with minimal notice. The ‘surprise announcements throughout the season’ thing cuts both ways — sometimes it means a great unscheduled concert, sometimes it means the zone you planned to visit is closed for ‘setup’.
Worth the Trip?
Here’s the thing about Riyadh Season — nothing else in the region does entertainment at this scale with this much money behind it. For better or worse, it’s a glimpse of what Saudi Arabia is building, and regardless of how you feel about the politics, the spectacle itself is undeniable.
If you’re planning activities beyond the festival zones, KLOOK lists some Riyadh day trips and experiences, though the selection for Saudi Arabia is still growing compared to Asian destinations. Trip.com is decent for bundling flights and hotels if you’re coming from Asia.
I left Riyadh with a phone full of photos I haven’t sorted through yet and a lingering craving for the lamb machboos from one of the Al Suwaidi stalls. The name of the stall? No idea. It was next to the one selling kunafa, had a long queue, and the guy running the grill didn’t speak much English. The lamb was unreasonably good.
