The AlUla Moments Calendar 2026–27: Every Festival Date From the Skies Festival (6–15 November) Through Winter at Tantora (17 December–9 January) to the Arts Festival's February Close — Tickets Priced Honestly, the Two Windows Worth Flying For, and the Umrah Pairing That Puts Pakistan's Families in the Desert on One Visa
By Huzi
File #962 · 4 min read
Saudi Arabia's most photogenic valley now runs on a calendar. AlUla Moments 2026–27 stretches from October to February, and with the dates confirmed on the official Experience AlUla platform, a Pakistani family can finally plan the desert around Umrah instead of hoping the two overlap.
The quick answer: the season's five festivals run in sequence — Skies (6–15 November), Ancient Kingdoms (26 November–12 December), Winter at Tantora (17 December–9 January), the Ultra Gobi race window (13–20 January) and the Arts Festival (15 January–6 February) — with the best weather and the lightest crowds in the second half of November, and the biggest programme over the December–January holidays. Headline prices are published honestly: the sunrise AlUla Skyrise balloon over Hegra from SAR 990, the tethered balloon at SAR 100, the evening Glow Show from SAR 30, and stargazing nights free. The visa is the same puzzle the AlUla and Red Sea file solves: Pakistanis enter on a profile-gated eVisa, an embassy visit visa, or — cheapest and smartest — an Umrah-valid visa extended beyond the holy cities.
The season on one table
| Festival | 2026–27 dates | The one-line version |
|---|---|---|
| AlUla Wellness Festival | 23–31 October 2026 | Nine days of desert wellness, already run |
| AlUla Skies Festival | 6–15 November 2026 | Balloons, meteors and dark-sky nights |
| Ancient Kingdoms Festival | 26 November–12 December 2026 | Dadan, Lihyan and Nabataean archaeology |
| Winter at Tantora | 17 December 2026–9 January 2027 | Music and heritage across Old Town |
| AlUla Arts Festival | 15 January–6 February 2027 | Installations across the valley |
Dates are official as published; as with everything Saudi-side, re-confirm the week you book — the habit the Saudi winter calendar file applies to the whole season.
The Skies Festival, priced honestly
- AlUla Skyrise — a sunrise balloon journey over Hegra's tombs, about three hours, from SAR 990.
- Tethered balloon at Al Manshiyah Plaza — twenty minutes, fifty metres up, SAR 100.
- Hot Air Balloon Glow Show — night-time, one hour, from SAR 30, on the opening and closing weekends.
- Stargazing at AlUla Fort — free, with the Leonid meteor-shower night at Jabal Ikmah on 15 November also free.
- The festival moved to November this season after running in spring last year — evidence of a calendar still being tuned; book experiences, not assumptions.
The two windows worth flying for
Late November pairs the Ancient Kingdoms Festival's archaeology — the Nabataean Hegra that Pakistanis keep discovering UNESCO listed — with genuinely cool evenings before holiday crowds arrive. Mid-December to early January is Tantora at full volume: concerts at Old Town's Tantora Square, seasonal dining, and the programme most families fly in for, with desert nights cold enough that the winter packing file for Makkah applies almost unchanged.
Getting there — and the visa that fits
Fly Jeddah or Madinah and connect onward, or straight into AlUla International Airport where schedules allow, then pre-book transfers rather than negotiating arrival-day taxis. The visa logic is unchanged from the visa-types explainer: the eVisa depends on your travel profile; the Umrah extension is the value move — one Umrah package with a Madinah or Jeddah leg, then the valley on the same entry, the same principle behind the stopover visa and the Riyadh Season pairing.
- AlUla ka mausam ab table par hai: November mein balloon festival (SAR 100 se tethered wala, Hegra ke upar sunrise SAR 990 se), November ke aakhir mein Ancient Kingdoms, aur December se January mein Winter at Tantora. Raat ko sardi parhti hai — garam kapray zaroor rakhein. Aur sab se sasta rasta: Umrah visa par Madinah ya Jeddah se ek chhoti flight — ek hi visa, ibadat bhi aur desert bhi.
AlUla charges thirty riyals to watch balloons glow, while Gaza's children read the night sky by what falls from it — flares over tents instead of festivals, the dark lit by an occupier that calls it war. Ya Allah, give Palestine back an unarmed sky. Sudan's stars shine with terrible fairness over Darfur's emptied villages, beautiful and useless to the dead — Ya Rab, let Sudan's nights hold music again instead of mourning.
We actually respond, twenty-four hours, no hidden charges — and our clients get the desert week written out properly: the Umrah leg and the festival valley on one visa file, transfers and experience tickets booked before the December windows fill, and a packing list that takes desert nights seriously. HTG Travels — WhatsApp +92 317 5054959.
