People participating in the third edition of Run The World Festival at Katara beach yesterday. Shaival Dalal
BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: The third annual Run The World Festival (RTWF) is set to create greater impact to the youth with more activities geared towards healthy lifestyle, cultural interaction and community outreach.
“This will impact the youth immensely especially because we have organisers from different cultures and multicultural events happening. Everyone can learn about different cultures while doing sports which will help them enrich their experiences that they will not forget,” Abdulaziz Al Sulaiti, Legacy Manager of The Youth Company, told The Peninsula at the festival opening yesterday.
An important element of the three-day regional youth event is a donation campaign for Typhoon Haiyan victims in the Philippines aimed at promoting civic engagement among the youth.
“We are looking to other societies like the Philippines, which was affected by the typhoon, wherein the victims lost everything while we are living in a very good community,” he added.
The Youth Company has partnered with Qatar Charity for the initiative in which visitors to the festival may place in-kind and cash donations.
“Once the festival is over, we are going to gather all the donations and fly to the Philippines along with Qatar Charity to deliver the donations ourselves.”
This year’s festival has a bigger venue and an expanded programme on sports and culture. The venue at Katara Beach has been divided into three sections including a Sports space, a Street space and a RTWF Village. At the Sports space, participants can play sports such as beach volleyball, football, cricket, tennis and tug-of-war and horse riding. They can also witness extreme sports such as parkour and skateboarding in addition to graffiti art and break dancing at the Street space. The RTWF Village, on the other hand, provides the cultural element with traditional food, craft, performances and exhibitions among others.
“There is a cultural tent for Qatar with henna for the ladies and people can learn more about falcons. There is also a traditional Ardha dance to celebrate National Day,” said Al Sulaiti.
This year’s event is also more aimed regionally and internationally welcoming more visitors from the region and other countries with expected number of visitors to reach 35,000 up from 27,000 last year.
The number of volunteers also increased to 800 this year and they come from 30 nationalities.
Al Sulaiti, who also acts as the Qatarisation Coordinator, said there was an increase in the number of Qataris involved in the festival.
The festival continues today until tomorrow and also highlights the much awaited finals of the Youth Got Talent competition.
The Peninsula
