With Ramadan, the popular treasure hunt returns at Katara Cultural Village. Celebrating the holy month, Katara is running the competition for the third consecutive year and it has already attracted a huge audience.
The first episode on the first Friday of this Ramadan saw many waiting to get into action. Every visitor to Katara is invited to participate in the competition every Thursday and Friday after the Tarawih prayers and look for the treasure box to win the QR2,500 prize money.
As per the tradition, the participants are handed a map to track the path that will lead them to the hidden place of the treasure. A new map is distributed every week. The second episode of the hunt will be held this Friday.
The participants after finding the boxes take them to a kiosk opposite building 15 to know if they are the lucky winners. The participation in the event is free. You just have to pick up a map and follow the path to participate in this exciting adventure.
There are 10 or more boxes hidden at different places, which are shown on a map every participant gets from a kiosk whose location is also given on the map. Only one box contains the prize while the remaining nine get mementos. The map shows many probable locations where the box could be hidden.
Find Your Treasure is happening at Katara for the third year and the main idea behind it is to get more interaction with the public and the audiences of Katara. At the same time, it lets people get more involved with different buildings in the village.
The response to the competition has been immense right from the very beginning two years ago. Dozens of people wanted to participate in the hunt when it was first announced which made Katara to hold the event every year since then and the response has been overwhelming. After Tarawih prayers, the Katara alleyways are full of treasure hunters searching for it through buildings and objects.
And for those who think the competition is easy money: It is not. It often takes people more than an hour looking for the treasure. The idea is to make it difficult for the people to find so that they can go around Katara and start seeing the areas that they sometimes do not see during their regular visits.
The boxes are placed in different areas all over Katara and sometimes even inside the buildings. People going to see an exhibition in one of the buildings would also have a chance finding the treasure box. The treasure boxes are often hidden at the most common places that people often easily ignore and just walk by.
Some lucky winners during the last editions would find the treasure on their stroll back from the mosque after offering prayers in the Katara mosque. More than 500 or more participated in each iteration of the competition in its first edition and even more followed in the second year. Judging from the response from the first Friday this year, the number of hunters is only set to rise.
There are still three more weeks to go. After a participant finds the box, they have to go the kiosk to get registered. Their ID details are taken and later they are issued a cheque in a small ceremony at the kiosk. The participants who could not find the bigger prize of money do not return empty handed most of the times.
Many people find gift hampers and takeaways from the boxes they find after a difficult search. The prizes are distributed then and there.
THE SEARCH BEGINS: The Katara Ramadan festival has been featuring treasure hunt as a regular event.
