The Festival of Falconry grew from the idea knocked about by a few English falconers wanting to offer a gathering of falconers something different from the normal show.

As the idea gelled it became a much bigger beast as the UAE falconers club wanted to submit falconry as a part of its countries Intangible Cultural Heritage to UNESCO. The idea grew that as many countries around the world that practised falconry, and had done so for centuries would also offer a submission to their countries UNESCO officials.

The culmination of the initiative and work done by the UAE, the IWC and all the falconry clubs around the world, helped by the instigation of the Festivals of Falconry, eventually led to UNESCO officially designating Falconry on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2010.
A submission was made by Abu Dhabi on behalf of the following eleven countries, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the Syrian Arab Republic. It is expected that Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia will be added shortly.

The first Festival of Falconry held in July 2007 at Englehard Estate, Nr. Reading, U.K. was the biggest gathering of world falconers in history. The second Festival held two years later was bigger still.

The Third Festival of Falconry was hosted by the Emirates Falconers' Club, Abu Dhabi and was held in Al Ain at Jahili Fort and a desert camp.

The Forth Festival was again hosted by the Emirates Falconers' Club, Abu Dhabi and this time was held at the Al Forsan, International Sports Resort and at the Falconers’ Camp at Hamim in Al Gharbia.

Links here take you to many images that try to give a flavour of the Four festivals in the build up and covering much of the events themselves.