A music festival with men and women dancing side by side would have been unthinkable in Saudi Arabia just 5 years ago - this year, organizers of "MDL Beast" say 180,000 attended their opening night. Bloomberg's Vivian Nereim reports on the festival pushing the boundaries of a changing kingdom.
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The party in the Saudi desert looked like any other rave until the music stopped for the Islamic call to prayer, leaving attendees in ripped skinny jeans and combat boots to stand in silence.
Fifteen minutes later -- religious duties completed -- thousands of party-goers got back to business. Men and women danced with abandon in a country where that would have been unthinkable five years ago.
The electronic music festival in Saudi Arabia this weekend highlighted the changes catapulting through the conservative kingdom under its controversial crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. In just a few years, the prince has lifted a ban on women driving, loosened gender segregation and defanged the religious police, who used to roam the streets punishing restaurants that played music.
In contrast, the four-day festival called MDL Beast Soundstorm was endorsed by the government and included performances by global DJs like Tiësto and Armin van Buuren. Organizers say more than 180,000 people attended the opening night, pushing boundaries as the kingdom transforms.
“Allow us progress, allow us to represent ourselves in the way that we feel fit,” said Prince Fahad Al Saud, a royal family member and entrepreneur who attended in a psychedelic-patterned jacket and sparkling eyeliner. “We are very eager to be part of the international community, but we can’t be stifled every time we try to make progress because it doesn’t look like what you want to see.”
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