Freej, an Arabic 3D animated series launched on the national television station in 2006 in the UAE, has come alive in an activity zone at the City Center to entertain children and the entire family throughout Ramadan. The popular series, which began a new season of 28 episodes of game show yesterday, is being featured live for the first time in Qatar. At the Freej Activity Zone, children and adults as well can enjoy an array of interactive events such as a magnetic wall storyboard where they can position the characters and tell their own stories. There are also craft activities including colouring, painting, puzzle solving, bead-making, crosswords, join the dots and origami. Other features from the TV series such as the “book of riddles” were also present to entertain visitors from 8pm-1am each day until the end of Ramadan. A traditional souq called the Freej village containing some six stalls and life-size camels as well as heritage buildings has also been created in the passage way within the shopping mall. Also, four main characters in the show – Um Saloom, Um Saeed, Um Allawi and Um Khammas as well as the most amusing of all little Abood are seen parading the Freej centre to meet and greet visitors. Faces of the characters have been engraved on elevator doors. Through the daily activities, children would have the chance to participate in games and win instant prices. They will also be awarded gifts in a hide-and-seek game finding the little Abood, whose imitations have been hidden in different places throughout the activity areas. To provide visitors with opportunity to watch past episodes of the TV series, replica of houses belonging to the show characters have been created within the centre. “We have brought to Qatar for the first time, the TV series, which is an animated programme aimed at engaging the whole family in different kinds of activities through which they can text in to answer certain questions in a session called the book of riddles,” Dubai-based Lammtara’s programme creator and commercial manager Khalid Abu Hmidan explained to Gulf Times yesterday. “Freej is the story of four old grandmothers living in a secluded neighbourhood in modern day Dubai. The concept emphasizes on celebrating national culture through highlighting local dialect, customs and tradition in a manner that entertains and educates,” Abu Hmidan explained further. Apart from the daily activities in the centre, there are plans to organise a five-day grand finale comprising live shows starting from the first day of Eid. The show is being organised in co-operation with Invent Creative Event Solutions and its managing director Colin Jones is helping as show director. “We will have a series of live performances by the characters during the grand finale at the end of Ramadan and we will be having four different shifts at 5.30pm, 6.30pm, 8pm and at 9pm,” Jones said.

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