The Beirut Sports Festival officially kicked off on Thursday at the Beirut Forum.
Listen to the article
The first edition of the Beirut Sports Festival, an event created and promoted by Karim Andari, was launched with great fanfare early on Thursday evening at the Beirut Forum in La Quarantaine, where it will be held until Sunday.
The official opening of the event took place in front of an impressive array of political, military and sporting personalities, as well as journalists representing almost all of the media. In attendance at the opening ceremony were the Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, MPs Michel Mouawad and Elias Hankach, the President of the Lebanese Olympic Committee, Pierre Jalkh, Colonel André Haddad in his capacity as representative of the Commander-in-Chief of the Lebanese Army, Joseph Aoun, and the Mohafez of Beirut, Marwan Abboud. The sports federations were also present: Akram Halabi (basketball), Walid Kassouf (volleyball), Mohamad Dagher (MMA), Georges Kopaly (table tennis), Georges Nseir (kung fu), Georges Zeidan (fencing), Joe Khoury (taekwondo) and the President of the Automobile et Touring Club du Liban, Elie Assaf. Billy Karam and Abdo Feghali (auto) and Ray Bassil (shooting) were also in attendance.
The inauguration was broadcast live on television on LBCI. As for the public, they flocked en masse, storming the Forum and filling up its stands. Given Lebanon’s difficult economic situation over the past three years, the organization of such a major sporting event is a success in itself. This success is proven by the event’s huge turnout.
In an electric and colorful atmosphere, the founder of the “Beirut Sports Festival”, Karim Andari, kicked off the festival, which opened with a grandiose score of aerial acrobatics. This was followed by a fine fencing demonstration, in turn followed by a surprising taekwondo demonstration, while a car drifting show was held on the Forum forecourt. Additionally, basketball, combat sports, table tennis, and arm-wrestling competitions were held throughout the Beirut Sports Festival.
This extraordinary festival covers an area of 10,000 square metres. No fewer than twenty sports disciplines are on the program: 3×3 basketball, mixed martial arts (MMA), fencing, taekwondo, padel (also known as padel tennis), table tennis, the university arm-wrestling championship, kung fu, wushu, badminton, bungee jumping and table soccer, among others. All competitions are held under the aegis of their respective federations. Numerous other sporting competitions and shows are supervised by the Automobile et Touring Club du Liban (ATCL).
The festival also features a large exhibition dedicated to the practice of sports, with several stands displaying and selling sports equipment and nutritional supplements. Moreover, an olympic museum is located at the main entrance. The car in which Billy Karam was Lebanese rally champion several times, a Lancia Delta HF, takes pride of place. Attendees can also admire a life-size model of an F1 single-seater and, on the same stand, play car races on a giant screen.
The Beirut Sports Festival continues at the Beirut Forum until Sunday, May 28th. This major sporting event is open to all from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The admission fee is symbolic (one dollar per person). All proceeds will be donated to talented athletes in need of financial support.
