For those who don’t know what the Doha Twestival is, have you been living under a rock? It’s only one of the world’s biggest festivals that happens in multiple countries around the world!

This year it’s happening at Aspire Park (from 6pm – 9pm) and organized by Qtel Virgin Mobile and sponsored by Aspire Zone, Al Saad Rentacar, QatarHappening, and all proceeds going to Reach Out to Asia.

Tickets cost 25QR per person (or 40QR for a family). So not only are you coming on down for a day of fun but by buying a ticket, your money goes to charity too! You’ll get to enjoy music, traditional dancing, some stand up comedy, and there will ALSO be auctions for Sixth Senses massages, Glow manicures and event tickets to iLoveQatar and GlobalDJ’s Big Day Out!

Anyway, if you need more convincing, click here. Hope to see you at the event tweeting away! Don’t forget to say hi to people from iLoveQatar (ILQ). We’re not sponsoring the event but we’re definitely supporting it

I’m sure that this national day is going to be a big one! With us winnning the 2022 World Cup as hosts, Qatar will probably want to show how awesome it can be.
Be warned though, if you are anywhere near the corniche, you’ll be stuck for a good couple of hours as people drive down on packed lanes, dancing, cheering, and waving flags.

Usually the westbay area has huge led screens showing different shows and arab celebrities (for those stuck in traffic and unable to watch the show on tv), trees are lit up with in themed colors (last year was purple and yellow), signs drip with led lights, banners and flags are waved all over the place and people parading to enjoy the festivities.

Around 6pm is when you should get on the corniche. That’s where you can see the sound and light show and enjoy the fireworks display. If you are lucky, you’ll also be able to get a table at Al Mourjan and enjoy some delicious food, desert, and if you’re partial to it, have some sheesha.

It’s going to be cold as usual, so make sure you come wearing a jacket. Last year was so amazingly cold and since the corniche is by the sea, I can assure you that you’ll regret not bringing something warm to wear.

So if you’re looking for a great guide to the events around Qatar (not just the official ones), visit http://www.nationalday2010.com You’ll find a bit of information about the history of Qatar, various events, some downloads, and you’ll also find some funny videos made by Qatar’s first Qatari comedian (and ILQ Ambassador), Mohammed Kamal! Thanks to Vodafone for helping ILQ put all this together. (To other companies, if you’re willing to partner up with ILQ and help us do other awesome stuff, please drop me a line!!)

Don’t forget to sign up to the ILQ newsletter. Registration on the site!

Ramadan Mubarak! I hope that people will have a great experience of Ramadan this year.

If you’re interested in reading up a bit, then be sure to check out this threads and posts:

Ramadan in a nutshell

Ramadan isn’t just for Muslims

Luxurious Ramadan

Saying Ramadan Kareem

Ramadan Opening Hours Guide 2010

Garangao – A Child’s Dream (The 14th day of Ramadan)

ILQ will be launching a fantastic new Ramadan site this year and it’ll be used every year to let you know what’s going on in Qatar and as a useful guide

Vodafone has officially flicked on it’s switch and started services from the 1st of March. In the coming days, Vodafone ahs announced that they plan to also select their first thousand users.

The buzz that’s getting more people interested is the IPO itself. The date April 12 2009 has been set as the launch of the IPO where Qataris will be able to invest in 40% of the company. The IPO is due to run through until April 26 2009.

The amount to be raised is roughly 338,000,000 shares at a value of 10 QR + 25dhs.

The general public are definately welcome an opportunity to recoup some of their losses after the financial crisis, which some have claimed did not impact Qatar as much as other countries.

We at ILQ think that it’s a great investment and if you do your research, you’ll see that Vodafone is a company that’s going to take care of it’s investors both in the short and especially in the long term.

http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?28,6517

Do you think you’ve got a good blog? Are you down to earth, honest, and feel you can relate to readers (and/or vice versa)? Then leave a message on this blog post with your blog. I’ll be scouring the net and listing my top 3 favourite blogs in / on Qatar.

Those top 3 will also receive a nice goodie bag!

Update: I think I’ll leave this open for one more week and then get to posting my top 3 favourite