The second Aspire Lake festival has attracted around 43,000 visitors who witnessed what was described as a ‘Magical Journey,’ also featuring spectacular fireworks displays over the weekend at Aspire Park. Receiving a huge number of spectators on the first day of the festival, Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) noted that they increased the number of stands from 5,000 to 8,000 due to popular demand from visitors and social media users.

“This one-of-its-kind festival is considered as the “Jewel of the Crown” of Aspire,” Lake Festival’s organising committee member Sheikh Mohamed bin Fahad al-Thani told Gulf Times. He said the two-day event aimed to provide a unique entertainment show and promote tourism in Qatar.


“This is a habit at Aspire, which is to present something new,” Sheikh Mohamed stressed, citing the creativity of French fireworks art wizard and director Christophe Berthonneau, who directed the closing ceremony of the 1998 FIFA World Cup France, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004, Turin 2006, and the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. He also played a part in the inauguration of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha 2008.

The festival, organised by AZF in partnership with Ooredoo, Qatar Airways, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, and Katara, also hosted Qatari small business entrepreneurs to showcase their products as part of AZF’s efforts to support small business owners. According to AZF, sales from their products throughout the festival reached more than QR1mn.

In a nutshell, Sheikh Mohamed said, Aspire is now becoming “a global reference in sport and we have an objective that we want to meet to be a world reference in sports by 2020.”

“All of what we do reflect the image of Qatar in general. We will keep going and we will try to maintain this position as you know Aspire is now a hub for international sports,” he noted.

He cited the success of the recently held Kite Festival, which attracted an increasing number of participants from different countries globally.

He said such events at Aspire, including Qatar’s Strongest Man and Esrar Race, encourage the Qatari community to participate.

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