Youth power driving Duhail Night Market

The highly-successful Night Market launched initially in Ramadan this year at the Al Duhail Sports Club parking lot is back and attracting thousands of visitors since its reopening last month. For this edition, the market is showcasing 130 micro-businesses in the fields of food and beverage (F&B), retail, handicrafts, and entertainment, among others.The Night Market is an initiative by Sheikh Suhaim bin Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani aimed at supporting Qatari youth, and organised by Cloud e for events by Qatari businesswoman and social media influencer Najlaa al-Shafiee.“The market is featuring many retail outlets for clothing, accessories, perfumes, home accessories, while for the F&B section, we have new concepts of coffee shops, restaurants, and sweets. Visitors will be treated to more businesses, bigger space, attractive decorations, and a variety of weekly entertainment,” al-Shafiee told Gulf Times. She said the first edition of the Night Market was launched in May during this year’s Ramadan season. The second edition started in November and has been attracting scores of visitors since the opening day. “Majority of our visitors are the younger generation, hence the market is filled with ‘the spirit of youth’,” al-Shafiee pointed out, adding that the market opens at 4pm and runs until 1am.She also stressed that there was an increase in the number of young entrepreneurs participating in the Night Market. The ages of the participating business owners range between 20 and 30 years old, al-Shafiee said.For families and children visiting the market, al-Shafiee said there is a designated family day on Tuesdays and Fridays. “For the time being, we only have skill games but we are planning to have a space for children,” she explained.Speaking to Gulf Times during the market’s first edition, Cloud e marketing manager Nasser al-Amri said “people are looking for new and unique experiences, especially after the economic blockade was imposed on Qatar in June 2017.” “We have conceptualised this initiative to offer something different to the public,” he noted. Al-Amri said the location of the Night Market is ideal and is near a residential community of “a lot of prominent Qataris.” He also noted that the Night Market also aims to bring in more commercial traffic to the Duhail area.