More than 75 thousand people are dazzled by the first-of-its-kind Aspire Lake Festival

More than 75,000 local and expatriate community members in Qatar visited Aspire Park over three days last weekend to witness the iconic performances of the first-of-its-kind Aspire Lake Festival, organised by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) in collaboration with Katara and Ooredoo.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event which concluded on Saturday evening, Mr. Nasser Abdullah Al-Hajri, Director of PR and Communications at AZF, said: “The Festival attracted an unprecedented turnout from community members in Qatar. The huge crowds that attended the first two days exceeded our expectations so we installed 2000 additional seats on the last day of the event to accommodate the growing number of visitors, and allocated a section for women and children only.” Al-Hajri added: “The event generated very positive remarks from the attendees and we’ll be working in the coming period to discuss lessons learned and agree the next steps to ensure next year’s event is an even bigger hit.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Corona, Creative Director for the Aspire Lake Festival, who is performing in the Middle East for the first time, said: “This has been a great experience for us because Qatar is a country with rich and diverse natural surroundings. There’s a beautiful contrast between Qatar’s desert, the greenery and the modern architecture and designs that have resulted from the modernisation and cultural revolution the country has witnessed in the past decade. The Aspire Lake is just as beautiful as Lake Geneva and was the ideal location for the event.”

Prominent local Aljazeera presenter, Ali Al Meslemani, who was spotted in the spectators stands with his family, praised the event saying: “My family and I were very impressed by the volume of people here. The performances captivated us. We usually see these events when we travel abroad, so it was great for Aspire Zone to host such an event home. We hope to see other similar events organised in Qatar in the future.” Mr. Khalid Ali Al Mawlawi, Chief Administrative Officer at Aspetar was also attending with his family. Speaking about the event, he said: “The Aspire Lake Festival was remarkable and even better than similar events I’ve previously attended in major European cities. It’s great to see so many locals and expats enjoy the lovely breeze at Aspire Park, one of the landmark tourist attractions in Qatar.”

To support local entrepreneurship and to build on Qatar’s existing efforts to diversify the economy and become more self-sufficient, AZF set up 12 food trucks by local Qatari entrepreneurs and SME owners in the Food & Beverage industry around the Aspire Park on the sidelines of the main event. Aspire Zone and Katara will select one of those SMEs and grant them a permanent spot in either venue. Throughout the three-day event, local SMEs have generated a combined revenue worth more than a million Qatari Riyals.

Lulwah Jaber, founder of Ruto Kakigori Ice Cream, commented: “We thank Aspire Zone Foundation for giving us an opportunity to showcase what we have on-offer to the thousands of attendees who’ve come to watch the Aspire Lake Festival. Our ice cream is the perfect blend between Qatari and Japanese cultures. This event has been a massive success for us, we’ve generated good profit, and learned a lot about working in a fast-paced environment and handling different customers.” The Aspire Lake Festival is part of Aspire Zone Foundation’s year-round series of activities, including the much-anticipated ‘Qatar Strongest Man’ competition which takes place in two weeks, from 24-25 November.