Everything You Need to Know About Doha Festival City

Qatar’s newest mall was filled with enthusiastic shoppers on its soft launch opening. Doha Festival City (DFC) is bringing many new names to the country, including Harvey Nichols, Ace Hardware and Borders bookstore.

There are currently only half of Doha Festival City’s 500 stores open, with the rest expected to be ready in the coming weeks and months.

According to previous statements, the complete launch will be in September 2017. If you’re considering checking out the new mall, here’s all you should know.

Currently open

Around 250 stores are currently open along with some coffee shops. Some of the new names include UK stationery store Paperchase and Japanese clothing store Muj. The world’s biggest Monoprix store has also opened its doors to the public.

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Other stores include Pottery Barn, Toys R Us, Zara, H&M, Mothercare, Virgin Megastore, Centrepoint, Home Centre and Marks & Spencer.

This M&S branch has a bakery, café and a food hall serving chilled and ready meals. Other cafes include Starbucks and Tim Hortons.

F&B outlets

Once complete, the mall will feature 100 F&B outlets, spread across two food courts. Many of the outlets will be opening the coming days.

Mall visitors can look forward to outlets such as Le Pain Quotidien, Katsuya, 800 Degrees Pizza, The Cheesecake Factory, Koushari & More, Wafflemeister and the country’s first Five Guys.

There will of course also be all the fast food favourites, such as McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut.

Entertainment

An 18-screen Vox Cinema is expected to open in the next week or two as they are currently putting the finishing touches. Once open, the public will be able to enjoy screens with multi-sensory 4DX technology.

This technology give viewers the chance to experience sensations as they watch, such as smelling scents or feeling the wind or vibrations.

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The rest of the entertainment options are set to open this summer. The public has a lot to look forward to, including:

• Angry Birds theme park - featuring a trampoline park, an indoor/outdoor go-karting track, water rapids and a drop tower
• A snow park - featuring snow dunes, slides, sledging and more
• Virtuosity - a gaming centre for both adults and teens alike
• Juniverse - a city in space, created by children for children, featuring its own ride, governing system and digital companion
• Caboodle - an indoor play park with soft play, dress-up, themed crafts and games

Services

The majority of services haven’t opened yet. However, there will be banks, ATMs and five pharmacies.

More to come

While there is a lot to enjoy already, the mall will keep gradually getting more attractions. Ace, the country’s first hardware superstore, is set to open in June.

Other highly anticipated ones that are yet to open include:

• Harvey Nichols
• Debengams
• BHS
• Borders bookstore
• Lego store
• Go Sport
• Saido
• FNAC

SEE ALSO: Doha Metro tracks expected to be completed this year

Directions

DFC is located north of Doha, off of Al Shamal Road and next to IKEA. It would take about 10 minutes to drive there from Landmark Mall.

For those coming from central Doha, you’ll just need to pass the upcoming North Gate mall on your left side, then you’ll find signs directing you to the road for DFC.

Parking

Once complete, there will be four levels of parking featuring 8,000 parking spaces.

There is a flyover that leads to access roads behind the mall. From there, you’ll find several entrances to shaded parking lots.

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Alternatively, if you go past IKEA to the front of the mall, you will find the West parking area, which is at ground level without shading.

All parking is free, with the exception of valet and VIP Parking which charge Dhs30 and Dhs60 respectively.

Opening hours

The mall is open Sundays to Wednesdays from 10am to 10pm and Thursdays to Saturdays from 10am to midnight.

Monoprix is open daily from 9am until midnight. Note that outlets will be closed during Friday prayers.