Fans of classical European music will be treated to a three-day festival in Al Ain in April, performed by internationally acclaimed musicians from the Slovak Republic. The Al Ain Music Festival, scheduled to be held April 4 to 6, is being organised by the Abu Dhabi Concert Committee in association with the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Slovak Republic Embassy.

The festival will combine classical music with Al Ain's historic sites. The event will help promote cultural tourism since Al Ain has forts, oases and desert which create an ideal setting for classical music. The festival will feature four concerts during one weekend by two well-known ensembles from Slovakia, a country with a long classical music tradition. The ensembles are the Bratislava Wind Octet and the Istropolitana Quarteto.

The Bratislava Wind Octet comprises top soloists from the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra and the National Theatre. The second group of musicians comprises a string quartet that performs in major European festivals. The first concert will be held on April 4 in the ballroom of the Inter-Continental Hotel. The second concert will be held on April 5 at the Al Ain Fort, and the audience will be taken on a guided tour of Al Ain Museum and a botanical walk in the Al Ain oasis.

The concluding concert will be on April 6 in the ballroom, and the audience will be taken on two guided tours to the Hili archaeological site and the Al Ain Valley of Fossils. The festival is part of a hotel package priced at Dh1,000 and Dh1,200 that includes two nights' accommodation, meals, the four concerts and other activities such as guided tours plus free bus transportation within Al Ain.