Katara: where World Cup fans will feel the pulse of culture
The Cultural Village Foundation has lined up 300 activities and 51 major events during the World Cup
FIFA World Cup fans will get a chance to feel the pulse of culture at the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) during the mega tournament, Katara Director of Cultural Affairs and Events Khalid Abdulrahim Al Sayed has said.
Katara has lined up a mélange of events that will reflect Qatar’s rich heritage and match the grandeur of the World Cup, he said.
Highlighting the link between sports and culture, Sayed said Katara would organise more than 300 activities and 51 major events during the World Cup.
The scale and festivity of the activities would be unprecedented and appropriate for the magnanimity of the tournament, which will be viewed by millions of people worldwide.
The fact that Qatar 2022 is the first-ever World Cup to be held in the Arab World makes it all the important for Qatar to showcase the true Arab identity and culture, the official said. The activities in Katara are tailored for this purpose and would suit a diverse range of tastes, he added.
“The origin is in the pluralistic culture, so every human activity can be philosophized or understood from a cultural perspective, such as the culture of peace, the culture of human rights, cultural heritage, and so forth.”
The concept of culture, he added, is constantly evolving with the development of communication means between human beings.
“Every activity that encourages understanding in the spirit of mutual respect between peoples is included in the list of cultural activity,” Sayed said.
He underlined that football gained its popularity due to its effectiveness in promoting social and cultural life and bringing together individuals and societies. Qatar’s sports clubs used to market themselves through cultural and social roles, in addition to their sporting activities, he added.
“Sports also play an active role in helping overcome differences and encouraging dialogue between people. It also helps to eliminate prejudgments, stereotypes, cultural differences, ignorance, intolerance and discrimination against others. A sporting event of a global nature such as the World Cup encourages dialogue between cultures, which is a means of promoting awareness, understanding, reconciliation and tolerance among peoples.”
Sayed said culture has found expression in sports, and the nature of competition takes a peaceful turn, noting that sport converges with culture, as it is not limited to strengthening the bodies only, but extends to refining the minds and souls through cultural and artistic events, which usually accompany sporting activities of a global nature.
The Katara official said the activities and events lined up for World Cup are divided into five categories: festivals, ceremonies, exhibitions, live presentations, and other events. While some events are specifically targeted towards fans of football and its history, which, he said, didn’t mean that others cannot enjoy them. For instance, Katara has lined up exhibitions on football art collections as well as World Cup postage stamps, he added.
The exhibition on football art collection is an interactive one that mixes the football field with art, Sayed said. It includes paintings by local and international artists that embody the atmosphere of the football world, as well as paintings depicting the intense atmosphere during the final matches.
“The exhibition is poised to take you to previous World Cups; give you a glimpse of the hosting cities, its landmarks reflecting the civilizations and cultures of the host countries, and their peoples. The exhibition also includes high-value collections related to the previous editions. On the sidelines of the exhibition, art workshops will be held for the public, so that they learn about the relationship between football and plastic art, through coordination with various parties. The exhibition also includes souvenirs relating to its theme.”
The World Cup postage stamps exhibition will be held at the Arab Postal Stamp Museum, Building No. 22. It will feature more than 340 stamps from all over the world, of which 280 stamps include all the World Cup tournaments since the first one in 1930, Sayed said. It also includes a distinguished and rare group of World Cup collections, including various souvenirs that are displayed for the first time with the participation of amateurs from Qatar, Italy, and the US, he noted.
The Cultural Village Foundation will also see the launch of 22 books that shed light on various aspects of the FIFA World Cup, the Katara official said, pointing out that the books are published by the Katara Publishing House in both Arabic and English. They include ‘Sportswear in the Final Matches’, ‘The World Cup Tournaments in Numbers’, ‘Goals Immortalized in the World Cup’ and ‘The World Cup Final Matches’.
‘The History of the World Cup from the Beginning to Now’, ‘The Reality of what Makes the World Cup in Qatar Special’, ‘Ronaldo and Messi Face-to-Face’, ‘Famous Participating Arab Players’, ‘World Cup Stamps’ and ‘Famous Football Captains’ would also make for some interesting reading, he opined.
Sayed pointed out that the subject being discussed by these books are important and would enrich the Qatari and Arab libraries, particularly ‘The Football Stars in Qatar’. He said the book features the career of 27 players who were the first to launch football in Qatar.
Additionally, ‘Sports Engineering in the World Cup 2022’ provides an important contribution to the field of sports engineering and explains the sustainability of the eight FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums, he added.
The Katara Traditional Dhow Festival is another major event in the line-up, he said, adding that the 12 edition of the festival will draw participation from eight countries and will hark back to the times when forefathers of the land sailed the seas in boats — an Olympic sport since the first Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896.
The latest edition of the festival will have 50 pavilions for the participating countries that include exhibitions of marine heritage collections, other handicrafts, and maritime heritage, in addition to the inclusion of an event on falconry.