The World Cup party finally started tonight with the longest queue for a bar I’ve ever seen.
Hundreds of people lined up patiently to pay £12 for a pint of Budweiser in the only FanFest in Qatar. There were jubilant scenes as the bar opened eight minutes early. Fans surged forward and chanted happily as they sipped their first beers of the tournament.
Scott Parkes, 33, and Sam Gillard, 33, were the first England fans to get their hands on pints. They queued for 35 minutes to get the beers in a long and orderly queue. The lads from Winchester, Hampshire are old university pals.
Scott, a brewery manager said: “£11 a pint - I’m going to make sure I enjoy this.” Sam, a teacher currently living in Qatar said: “It was worth the wait. Let's hope it’s a great tournament and England do well.”
Argentina fan Danilo Antonello was the very first fan in the queue. Danilo, 37, said: “I just wanted to be part of history. I’ve been here in Qatar for two days now. The beer tasted great!”
Danilo, who supports Chacarita Juniors, was quickly joined by dozens more fans as they waited for the huge bar to open. Each fan was asked if they wanted a Budweiser “with alcohol or without.”
One barman said: “In the first two hours I’ve only had one person who said ‘without’!”
Lots of families came to enjoy and experience the loud atmosphere. General manager Alan Mohammed, 39, from Greenford, west London was watching the fireworks and displays with wife Luna, 35, and children Loay, 11,and Selina, eight.
They were wrapped in flags of St George. He said: “We have tickets for all the matches to the semi final. We are very excited and very hopeful that England will do well. Let’s hope they go all the way and get to the final. It will be such a fantastic experience for us all - particularly the children.”
England super fans Kevin Fulcher, 68, a retired electrician, and Kevin Hall, 63, an engineer, both of Retford, Notts., have been at every tournament since the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
They had £500 tickets to the final with the official England fans group. Then they were picked out by the organising committee who have now funded their accommodation, flights and tickets to the England group games, quarter and semi finals.
Kevin said: “We are really looking forward to it.”
Security to even gain entry to the FanFest was incredibly tight. There was airport style security and I even had to remove my glasses to put them through the X-ray machine.
Some fans were not allowed in because they only had paper print outs of the government issued all-important Hayya cards and did not have them on their mobile phones. Incredibly there is still construction going on in the city centre despite the first match being less than 24 hours away.
Barely 100 metres from the main entrance to the FanFest migrant workers toiled to lay paving stones. They worked until dusk with their machinery forcing many fans to walk in the road to reach the entry points.
A huge firework display on the famous Corniche drew applause and gasps as it accompanied a spectacular light show on the skyscrapers in the distance.
