DOHA: The sixth Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF 2015) opens today at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park, promising five days of scrumptious food and diverse entertainment to suit every one’s taste.
Organised by Qatar Tourism Authority and Qatar Airways, the annual festival will see the world’s best chefs showcasing signature dishes from different cultures around the world for everyone to enjoy.
The festival, featuring 48 stands located in nine zones, will offer a wide variety of mouthwatering food highlighting a fusion of culinary cultures from around the world in addition to gourmet and organic food.
One of this year’s festival’s culinary highlights is ‘Dinner in the Sky – A Taste of Business Class’ in which Qatar Airways offers festival visitors chance to experience the airline’s Business Class Menu 60 metres above the ground.
Other culinary features include Marsa Malaz Kempinski’ Afternoon Tea – High Tea Tent, Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels’ Dinner on a Dhow and The Diplomatic Club’s BBQ Donut.
For the first time in its six-year run, the festival will feature nightly fireworks show. Tonight at 6, visitors will witness the first pyrotechnics display at the festival. From Wednesday to Friday, the fireworks display is scheduled at 8.30pm while on the last day of the festival it will be at 9.30pm.
Exciting shows and performances will be held throughout the festival at the “Stage Zone” which is equipped with state-of-the-art electrical and digital technologies to provide the highest quality entertainment.
Pop artist and songwriter, Tarek Sidani will play a number of his most beautiful tunes during the festival, while the “Drummers” band will stun the audience with their energetic beats. The activities will also include dancing shows representing different cultures and countries where skillful dancers will mesmerise the audience with exciting performances, as well as solo break-dancers will showcase their flair.
The “Chef Orchestra”, comprising professional musicians, will play traditional tunes and perform original folk music using pipe instruments.
The Qatari Arda dance will also be strongly present at the festival, where male dancers from all ages wearing national dress will perform their traditional sword dance originally designed to be performed in weddings and on special national occasions.
In addition, there will be a special zone dedicated to the celebration of Qatar-Turkey Year of Culture 2015. The special zone will host Qatari and Turkish chefs who will cook delicious local and Turkish food.
The festival opens to the public today from 5.45pm to 10.30pm and from 1.30pm to 10.30pm in the succeeding days.
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