West End Park in the Industrial Area is gearing up to host thousands of families and single workers as part of the Qatar National Day celebrations.
The West End Park open theatre and cricket stadium is among the venues that will witness a variety of festivities, entertainment shows and fun activities on December 18.
In this regard, a work group meeting has been held to assess arrangements for the programmes to be held at West End Park in the presence of Col Abdullah Khalifa al-Muftah, Director of the Public Relations Department, Ministry of Interior (MoI), and Mana Ibrahim al-Mana, an official from the Committee of Associated Programmes for Qatar National Day Celebrations 2013.
Lt Col Sultan Mohamed al-Kaabi, head of the Community Policing Section in Rayyan Security Department, representative of the Indian community and Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) president Tarun Basu, Sri Lankan community representative Tariq Kassim and MES Indian School, Pak Shama, Noble International School and Sri Lankan School co-ordinators attended the meeting.
Also in attendance were officers from the Internal Security Force, Community Policing Section in Rayyan Security Department and Civil Defence, a representative of Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) and heads of food, logistics, cultural activities, volunteers and sports committees.
Col al-Muftah explained the programme details and arrangements to the attendees. The meeting evaluated venue arrangements, programme schedules, parking facilities and mechanisms of controlling public entry and exit.
Programmes based on the theme “One Love”, as revealed by the Committee for Associated Programmes of Qatar National Day Celebrations 2013, will mark the love and loyalty of expatriate communities living in Qatar.
At West End Park, which is located close to the Karwa headquarters, the Indian and Sri Lankan communities and schools such as MES Indian School, Sri Lankan School, Pak Shama and Noble International School will participate in the celebrations through various programmes.
Cultural programmes by schools and communities:
The programmes will start with the National Anthem at 8am by school students, followed by a parade featuring children from each participating school. The schools will highlight Qatari traditions in the seven-minute parade.
A general song competition and a thematic song competition will be held between the schools before the communities start performing different cultural and entertainment shows on the stage.
In the morning session, Indian community teams will showcase Melam (Doha KSCA), folk dance from Maharashtra (Maharashtra Mandal), Tamil folk dance (Varadrajan and team) and songs in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
A Sri Lankan team will perform Sinhala, Tamil, English and Baila songs as well as dances in the Kandyan, Heritage and Malay styles, led by Denu.
The afternoon session will start with performances by Indian community teams, including a Bengali folk dance by Bangiya Parishad, Dasara Festival by Karnataka Sangha and Duff Muttu, a traditional performance from Kerala, by Jalil and team, along with some songs. This will be followed by songs by Sri Lankan Orchestra in Sinhala and English, besides Baila.
The participating schools will compete in a general dance recital followed by a thematic show, where each school will put up a skit of 10 minutes featuring Qatar.
Another set of programmes will begin at 6pm, which will feature songs in different languages and other attractions such as Lezim dance from Maharashtra by Nayana Wagh and team, Oppana, a traditional performance from Kerala, Garba by Gujarati Samaj, Sri Lankan dance in the Heritage style and songs by community singers.
Apart from songs in different languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhala, Telugu and English, there will be south Indian fusion dance by ICC and Odissi dance by Utkalika.
There will be folkloric performances, traditional shows, acrobatics shows and musical performances at the venue. The other attractions include a Harley-Davidson motorbike show, driving simulator, seatbelt convincer and traffic competition for the general public with gifts for winners.
Musical shows:
The West End Park open theatre, which can accommodate more than 14,000 people, will host a Nepali musical show on December 17 (4-10pm), an Indian and Pakistani musical show on December 18 (8-11pm) and a Filipino musical show on December 19 (4-10pm). Entry to the musical shows is through tickets.
Cricket extravaganza:
The West End cricket stadium - with a seating capacity of 12,000 - will witness a cricket tournament featuring Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi community teams on December 18. The matches will be managed by Lagaan Cricket Club, headed by Azim Abbas.
Miscellaneous facilities and services:
The venue will also provide various services to the public, including free blood and sugar checks, in co-operation with the Supreme Council of Health, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), QRC, Aster Medical Centre and Naseem Al Rabeeh Medical Centre. In addition, a blood donation camp by HMC and first-aid training by QRC will be provided at the venue
Further, the venue will have praying areas for the public, resting areas for families, restaurants, emergency medical services, a community bazaar and other facilities.
Help at hand:
More than 130 volunteers will be deployed to ensure that the event runs smoothly (6am to 10pm). The lost-and-found office managed by the Community Policing Section will distribute tags among children accompanying families in order to help identify missing kids. Two hotline numbers (55899682/55483466) have been allocated for this purpose.
Prizes galore
Schools winning the first, second and third places at each venue will be awarded QR10,000, QR7,000 and QR5,000, respectively. Besides, the winners and runners-up of the cricket tournament will get QR7,000 and QR4,000, respectively.
West End Park, one of the venues of the celebrations.
