Figured we could start a dedicated topic to list all the Fan Fests and other activities that are officially hosted (Mexican House). Anyone who has flyers or info, feel free to dump and discuss here.
Good call here thx for doing it. Anyone on today's Fan Leader thing call? Sounds like they laid out details... and none of them look favorable to have drinks. Entire corniche will be alcohol free, and the 1 fan fast will have a section for beer. There are going to be riots, they are acting like this is some Doha expo trade show. So naive.
I read on Eagleman's report from the Fan Leader Information Session that they are expecting a capacity of 40K (expandable to 60K) at the main Fan Fest, yet he also reported that alcohol is restricted to a "single point of sale and the consumption area is limited, as well." I guess "single POS" means one hopefully large concession stand where beer can be purchased? It can't mean one person selling beer. But even so it sounds like the lines will be ridiculously long. I'm thinking say a US stadium with 40-60k seats has tons of stands and cashiers selling beer and the lines are still long. This could be disastrous, I wouldn't be surprised if there are lines of over an hour just to get 2 crap Budweisers.
For the Al Bidda Fan Fest, “single point” means one area of the Fan Fest sells beer, as opposed to normally where it’s all over. It’ll be a dedicated area near the main stage/screen. As you suggest, it’ll be long lines and probably a general disaster. Lines are always long when the fan fest is full, and I think the fan fest will be very full every day if that’s the only place in Doha to reliably get a drink. There will also be a few other official (FIFA/Qatar-sponsored) entertainment areas in Doha with alcohol sales. The concert/DJ festival near Ras Bu Fontas is rumored to. There will also be a beach club next to Stadium 974, but alcohol is uncertain there. I don’t think they plan to have any screens showing the matches at either of those, which is really dumb.
Sounds like my idea of a nightmare. Those fan fests are an ok place to watch a game when they are 30 to 60% full, but they absolutely suck when they are packed. A lot has changed in 4 years. In 2018, fan fests were probably the least-appealing place to catch a game and now they will be one of the better options due to the sheer lack of other adequate options.
Putting this back here.. the infamous Ed Ball map.. 2022 WORLD CUP - QATAR ALCOHOL MAP https://goo.gl/maps/QSDjU7aC1sBSPCxo8
Okay, not bad. I take back my previous post above. Many places in there that look much better than a FIFA fan fest. Those fish & chips with a Franziskaner in the Irish Bar looked good!
The issue though is whether they will let in non-guests to the hotel bars? There definitely are plenty of spots but can't see how they would manage 10,000 people wanting to get in and aren't guests.
the "Entertainment Destinations" brochure says "NO" for International Beverages at the 974 Beach Club. I guess it could change, but if that document says no I think it's a small chance it'll change. The brochure also says "No" for 3 Fan Villages, Ras Bou Funtas, Al Rayyan, and Lusail. YES for International Beverages is listed for: Daydream Festival Arcadia Spectacular parts of Diplomatic Beach Qetaifan Island Fan Village There was a different leak that showed the alcohol part of Al Bidda was a smaller part of the park across the street from the main park.
I'm just surprised on how little information there is about these things 3 months out. Like the websites of the Daydream Festival and Arcadia are without any info for the World Cup. They seem cool and unique so I'm sure we would do them but are they just glorified EDM festivals?
agreed. The brochure I keep citing is now over 10 weeks old and was geared towards vendors not the attending public. Here are the pages for the Arcadia Spectacular and Daydream Festival for anyone who doesn't have it:
There’s been another more recent release of that material. Arcadia Spectacular is the one in Ras bu Funtas and will have alcohol. It’s advertised as featuring “international techno/house DJs”. (Being a fan of this type of music, I’m hopeful but also wary that they might be using those terms in the common -but incorrect - way, as a blanket term for all electronic music). And there’s another festival-type event that will be in Al Wakrah, close to the prison camp accommodations. Unclear on alcohol for that one. But yeah, basically these will be like music festivals. As of now, I haven’t seen any explicit plans to feature screens showing matches at these events, which is a miss. But that would be easy enough to fix later. There will also be a large ticketed concert event at Stadium 974 on Friday 16 Dec, featuring a “well-known American music artist” and key figures and companies in the fashion industry (umm what?). There’s also going to be some other events mixed in, leading up to Qatar Day (18 Dec).
I appreciate the update. Is there a way you can share the updated brochure? I'm trying to keep up with this stuff. As @uuaww pointed out it's surprising that such a small amount of information has been officially released so close to the tournament. We are now at less than 3 months to go and what we know has been leaked here and there or part of vague or non-detailed official announcements. Is it that they're so disorganized that things aren't finalized yet? Maybe there are still internal debates over what places can serve alcohol and how much between the Qatar hard-liners and those that want to liberalize access? Or are they just holding back information to get a bigger impact closer to the start, or maybe it's bad news (e.g., less alcohol access) and they want to hold that back too?
so no sooner than I post at 07:50 AM PDT than I get an email from Qatar 2022 with the "Live it All in Qatar!" 30 minutes after my post. I went to the Qatar2022.qa web site and it looks like each event has it's own brochure. I'm looking at them now to see what info is available. I had just looked at the web site earlier this morning and didn't see this so it looks like finally some info is out. Hopefully it has all the answers. follow up: no info on "international Beverages" on any of the brochures. Some like the Courniche refer to "Family and child-friendly" which I think is a code word for No Alcohol.
I wonder if hordes will just come anyway, and riot, or if it will be the least attended world cup in decades because of the blatantly obvious s--- show nature of it? Curious to see how it plays out, and 1000% not going lol, not that I could afford it anyway, but it sounds like a god awful experience.
c'mon, it's not going to be a "god awful experience". I'm sure I'll have a great time and experience a lot of cool things. For sure it would be more fun if it were in a lot of other places instead of Qatar but no way will it be "god awful".
It’s not going to be the most grassroots or fun World Cup ever, but it’s not going to be a bad experience. Transportation and logistics will be top notch. I have no doubts the Metro and army of shuttle buses will be able to handle the crowds and get everyone where they need to be in a timely manner. Contrast this with Brazil, where for half of the stadiums I went to, the only realistic option for getting there was to walk long distances from the city center. Sure, it won’t be easy to find a casual drink or place to watch the games in Doha. If either of those is important to you, you’ll need to plan ahead in a way you didn’t have to in other World Cups. Or accept that the best option sometimes might be to watch a match from your hotel/apartment. To me, being able to attend 3x more matches in person than for a typical World Cup helps offset this.
I agree with this. If I only have a few times in 10 days when I can have a beer before or after a game, when I can see maybe 10 or 12 games during that time, I won't care. Hey will probably lose a few kilos/pounds!
bit dramatic? a "god awful" experience is being at the DMV for 5 straight days. If you feel that this is going to be just completely unenjoyable, then simply don't go. Why would you pay money to do something that you aren't going to enjoy?
I’ve never been under the impression that attending a World Cup will be a relaxing time, free of stress and crowds. That’s certainly not what I’m seeking in Doha. I’ll grant that this edition will have an especially empty and fake corporate feel to it, so Disneyworld may be an apt comparison in that regard.
Depends - would I have to sleep in the DMV or would I be a free adult in the evenings those 5 days? Would I spend the nights in a tent that's hot as balls? Would a slave pitch my tent or would I have to do it myself? I kid Qatar. But there are legit capacity concerns. There would be for any medium-sized city hosting an entire WC. Especially if their actual ability to host such an event wasn't considered until after they were selected to host the WC.
I’m not sure what you’re looking to do in Doha, but it’s not a prison. And nighttime lows in Nov-Dec are in the 60s, so I don’t think the heat will be a problem. No question that Doha isn’t capable of hosting a normal World Cup by itself. I think they scored very low on most categories in their bid but were awarded it anyway for one reason ($$$). It’s like those non-serious Olympics bids from Baku or Bandung, which are normally eliminated in the first round of voting. It didn’t make sense in 2010 and doesn’t make sense now. I think in the end if people are able to find an accommodation solution that works for their budget, the rest will be manageable. For instance, the Fan Fest can only get to a certain capacity before people will need to go elsewhere to watch matches. This happens at every World Cup.
I shouldn't be surprised considering how last minute so much seems to be about this World Cup, despite them having 12 years to prepare, but I was when I read that they are only now asking businesses who want to have food and drink stalls and stands to apply for spaces and that those applications need to be in by 15th September. So, presumably once approved, less than two months to sort it all before the competition begins.