Khalifa International Stadium — a proposed FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament venue — hosted Indian music star A.R. Rahman as part of Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture.
The event highlighted the venue’s legacy use, three years prior to the big-ticket event. It illustrated the stadium's versatility at hosting both sporting and cultural events.
It is also the first tournament-ready venue for Qatar 2022. The stadium will also host the World Athletics Championship later this year.
More than 20,000 fans attended Rahman's concert. At least 6,000 Qatar 2022 construction workers were invited to attend the event, while the SC collaborated with Qatar Volunteers Group to provide more than 400 volunteers.
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The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), the organisation responsible for delivering the infrastructure and legacy for Qatar 2022, used Rahman's concert as an opportunity to engage with the local community.
Mead Al Emadi, the SC's Community Engagement Manager, said: "This is all part of our efforts to activate and engage with our volunteers. Utilising opportunities such as this – at one of our FIFA World Cup venues – will help us to plan and deliver our mega-event in 2022, including crowd management, way finding and audience services.
"I'd like to thank Qatar Volunteers Group for their ongoing support. Their knowledge and advice is helping us to prepare for Qatar 2022."
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Al Emadi said the concert strengthened links with Qatar's south Asian communities.
"We've made a huge effort to involve every community group in Qatar's World Cup journey and since signing an agreement with community associations in 2016, it's great to hear that people are benefitting from our initiatives long before the tournament kicks off.”
“The film of our community leaders was shown twice during the concert and highlighted people's passion and excitement for the World Cup,” he added.
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