People celebrating third day of Eid Festival in the Corniche yesterday
The first-ever Eid Festival in Qatar ended yesterday with spectacular events enjoyed by scores of visitors. The success of the event was demonstrated through the sea of people from day one to three, making the festival one of the most-awaited celebrations in the country.
The three-day event was held at one of Doha’s most iconic attractions – the Corniche.
The 1.4km stretch of the road was filled with enormous helium balloons, food kiosks, children’s outdoor inflatable bouncers, carnival games, roaming entertainers, concerts and marching band parade.
This is the first major public and outdoor event after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic.
Tens of thousands festivalgoers were wowed by the diverse line-up of programme.
The Peninsula talked to some of them and they said one thing in common – the Eid Festival is an annual event to watch out for.
Rohit Gupta, an Indian expatriate, said the festival is marvelous and the main attraction is the Giant Balloon Parade. “Kids enjoyed a lot in this festival. I’ve seen them out the streets more compared two years ago.”
Jo Sy, who went on the day two of the event, said: “Playing the carnival games make me feel I’m a child again. Back in the Philippines, it is common to have festivals here and there, the Eid festival reminded me of home.”
While locals and expatriates enjoy the entertainment programme, both amusement and food and beverage industries are ripping the sweet success of the festival on their sales performance. Local stores said their sales grew twice or thrice more.
Sally, who’s working at a food kiosk, said: “In the afternoon, families with their children come, but around 5pm onwards, the crowd went crazy. We have nonstop orders and people keep on coming and lining, it’s very good for business.”
Mohammad, working at a food stall, said: “People like to eat finger foods especially with this kind of festival, they want something that they can munch as they roam around, check out the marching bands or watch a concert. Our sales shoot up, I hope Qatar will be hosting more festivals especially during the winter season.”
Food kiosks are along the stretch of the Corniche – from Arabic to Asian dishes, it provided a huge selection for tens of thousands of visitors.
The two main highlights of the festival were the Giant Balloon Parade and the Fireworks display.
Every night, a five-minute fireworks display painted the Doha sky where residents and citizens screamed, clapped and jumped with their amazement on this.
Meanwhile, the enormous helium balloons are a showstopper. Although cancelled on the first day due to bad weather conditions, it was held for the next two remaining days of the festival.
Over a dozen of giant balloons were featured for this year’s first edition of the festival with some of the children’s favourite cartoon characters including Super Mario and Luigi, Bob from Minions, Little Lulu, Chase from PAW Patrol; and Red, Jake and Bomb from Angry Birds.
Qatar’s symbol of ecology and cultural diversity were also presented through the big balloons — falcon, whale shark and a Qatar Airways plane.
Fatima from Syria said: “Even if I have to wait so long just to see the giant balloon parade, I will do it again. I cannot explain the joy I’m feeling because it’s the first time I saw it, and Bob from Minions was even there which is my favourite cartoon character.”
“I loved the fireworks display! I can count on my fingers how many fireworks display is being done in Qatar which makes it a truly remarkable one, imagine seeing it again for six months, it’s a profound moment,” said Ghary, who watched the three-day fireworks display at the festival.
