‘More than 75,000 people’ enjoy Aspire Lake Festival

More than 75,000 local and expatriate community members in Qatar visitedAspire Park over three days last weekend to witness the performances ofthe “first-of-its-kind” Aspire Lake Festival, the organisers said.The event was organised by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) in collaborationwith Katara and Ooredoo. Speaking on the sidelines of the event thatconcluded on Saturday evening, Nasser Abdullah al-Hajri, director of PRand Communications at AZF, said: “The huge crowds that attended thefirst two days exceeded our expectations, so we installed 2,000additional seats on the last day of the event to accommodate the growingnumber of visitors, and allocated a section for women and childrenonly.“The event generated very positive remarks from the attendees and we’llbe working in the coming period to discuss lessons learned and agree thenext steps to ensure next year’s event is an even bigger hit.”Meanwhile, Roberto Corona, creative director for the Aspire LakeFestival, who is performing in the Middle East for the first time, said:“This has been a great experience for us because Qatar is a countrywith rich and diverse natural surroundings. There’s a beautiful contrastbetween Qatar’s desert, the greenery and the modern architecture anddesigns that have resulted from the modernisation and culturalrevolution the country has witnessed in the past decade. The Aspire Lakeis just as beautiful as Lake Geneva and was the ideal location for theevent.” Prominent local Al Jazeera presenter Ali al-Meslemani, who was spottedin the spectator stands with his family, praised the event saying: “Myfamily and I were very impressed by the volume of people here. Theperformances captivated us. We usually see these events when we travelabroad, so it was great for Aspire Zone to host such an event home. “Wehope to see other similar events organised in Qatar in the future.”  Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi, chief administrative officer at Aspetar was alsoattending with his family. Speaking about the event, he said: “TheAspire Lake Festival was remarkable and even better than similar eventsI’ve previously attended in major European cities. It’s great to see somany locals and expats enjoy the lovely breeze at Aspire Park, one ofthe landmark tourist attractions in Qatar.”