DOHA: The newly opened West End Park in the Industrial Area is all set to welcome thousands of expatriate workers and families on National Day - December 18 - with a rich mix of cultural, sports and entertainment events.
The Committee of Associated Programmes for Qatar National Day is working with a number of expatriate schools and organisations to make the celebrations a big success.
The programmes themed ‘One Love’ will embody the love and affinity of expatriate communities to the country they live in and its people.
A work group meeting was held on Monday to assess the preparations in the presence of the director of Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Interior Col Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah and Mana Ibrahim Al Mana, officials from the Committee of Associated Programmes.
Lt Col Sultan Mohammed Al Kaabi, head of community policing section at Rayyan Security Department, president of Indian Cultural Centre Tarun Basu, representative of Sri Lankan community Tariq Kassim, coordinators from MES Indian School, Pak Shama, Noble International School and Sri Lankan school attended the meeting.
Officers from Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya), community policing section of Rayyan Security Department and Civil Defence and representative of Red Crescent and heads of various sub committees were also present.
The meeting evaluated the arrangements, programme schedules, parking facilities and mechanisms of controlling the entry and exit of the public.
Programmes at West End Park will start with the Qatari national anthem at 8am by school students and will be followed by a parade of students from the four participating schools. The seven-minute parade will highlight Qatari traditions.
A music competition and a thematic song competition will be held between the schools before different Asian communities start performing a variety of cultural and entertainment shows on the stage.
In the morning session, Indian community teams will be showcasing their traditional art forms such as Melam by Doha KSCA, Maharasthra folk dance by Maharashtra Mandal, Tamil folk dance by Varadrajan and team and songs in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
A Sri Lankan team will perform Sinhala, Tamil, English and Baila songs and stage dances of Kandyan, Heritage and Malay styles led by Denu.
The afternoon session will start with performances by Indian teams including a Bengali Folk dance by Bangiya Parishat, Dasara festival dance by Karnataka Sangha and Duff muttu – Kerala traditional performance – by Jalil and team .They will be followed by songs by a Sri Lankan troupe in Sinhala, English and Baila.
There will be a dance competition for the participating schools followed by a thematic show on Qatar where each school will present a 10-minute skit featuring Qatar.
Evening programmes beginning at 6pm will include songs in different languages as well as shows such as Maharashtra lejime led by Nayanawagh and team, Oppana — Kerala traditional performance, Gujarati Garba — Gujarat Samaj, Sri Lankan stage dances of heritage style and songs by expatriate singers.
Apart from songs in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhala, Telugu and English, there will be a south Indian fusion dance by Indian Culture Center and Odissi group dance by Utkalika.
A Harley-Davidson motor bike show, display of driving simulator and seat belt convincer and competition focusing on traffic for the public with gifts for winners will also be part of the celebrations.
The West End Park open theatre which can accommodate over 14,000 will host a Nepalese musical show on December 17 (4pm to 10pm), Indian and Pakistani musical show on December 18 (8pm to 11pm) and Philippines musical show on December 19 (4pm to 10pm). Entry to the musical concert is restricted by tickets.
The West End Park cricket stadium with 12,000 seating capacity will witness a cricket match between Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi community teams on December 18. The matches will be managed by Lagan Cricket Club headed by Azeem Abbas.
Free blood and sugar checking will be held in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar Red Crescent, Aster Medical Centre and Naseem Al Rabeeu Medical Centre. A blood donation camp by HMC and first aid training by Qatar Red Crescent will also be held.
The venue is provided with pray areas, resting areas for families, restaurants, emergency medical services, community Bazar and other necessary services for the public.
More than 130 volunteers will work for the smooth running of the events from 6am to 10pm. A lost-and-found office managed by Community Policing Section will distribute tags among the children accompanying the families to help them identify missing children. Two hotline numbers (5589 9682/5548 3466) have also been allocated for this purpose.
The Peninsula
Corniche Road to close on Saturday for four hours
DOHA: The Corniche Road will be closed for four hours from 5am on Saturday for rehersals of the National Day parade. Commuters have been advised to take alternative routes.
Some 70 buses will be conducting shuttle services to the Corniche on the National Day to transport people attending the day-long celebrations, a local Arabic daily reported yesterday, quoting a senior official of the organising committee.
People can catch the buses at parking spots near the Central Post Office, Qatar Petroleum building, Souq Waqif and the Qatar Sports Club.
Special booths have been set up at the venue to provide information to the public about the National Day programmes. Visitors can also report about their lost items at these booths.
The Peninsula
