The new approach to festivals in Qatar warms my heart

I have always been fond of events and festivals that take place in Qatar. In recent times, festivals have been changing on many levels due to local and international exposure.

From experience, I’ve understood that these changes often happen on an extravagant level.

Before going into the most recent event — the Qatar International Food Festival 2017 — I wish to list two other examples. They are the Qatar National Day (QND) and Souq Waqef Spring festival.

QND was celebrated in solidarity with the crisis in Syria. The slogan for QND was utilised to collect donations for relief work in Syria. Meanwhile, the Souq Waqef Spring Festival was cancelled as the government felt it was inappropriate to hold extravagant concerts and simply ignore the tragic situation in the region.

The Qatar International Food Festival took a middle ground. In the spirit of celebrating food and diversity in Qatar, I have found it less extravagant this time, but in a good way.

Every year, events are too extravagant to the point where it does not feel like I’m in Doha anymore. This year, the event was far simpler than previous International Food Festivals.

First of all, having it at the Hotel Park was a plus for parking instead of taking a bus. Secondly, I noticed there was an emphasis on healthy food and local attractions such as homemade burgers, Churros, Qatari restaurants and Vegan restaurants.

Finally, I did not appreciate seeing too many mainstream restaurant chains that have branches across the country. I expected the festival would highlight more authentic restaurants with fewer branches or a single branch.

All in all, despite this decrease in extravagant events, I believe it is related to regional political and socioeconomic factors, but I had never felt the authenticity of these events as I have recently.

These changes warm my heart.