The website is selling tickets for hundreds of dollars.
A website that emerged online to promote an alleged music festival on Qatar’s Banana Island has been confirmed as fake, Doha News has found.
The website listed global American superstar Beyonce as a headlining act at the concert, alongside Canadian singer The Weeknd, Egypt’s “Number one” Mohamed Ramadan, and Moroccan artist Saad Lamjarred.
It also listed major global companies as sponsors of the event, including Qatar Airways, state-owned petroleum company QatarEnergy, Pepsi and McDonalds.
However, both Qatar Airways and Banana Island confirmed to Doha News that this is a fake event and they have no affiliation with the festival.
“Qatar Airways is aware of a website that appears to be selling tickets for a music festival in Qatar where it falsely states that the airline is one of many sponsors of the event. Please be aware that this communication is fraudulent and Qatar Airways has no involvement in this event,” the national carrier said in a statement to Doha News.
On Instagram, Banana Island distanced itself away from the fake music festival.
“We are not selling tickets for any supposed festival, as posted by bananaislandfestival. Please do not buy tickets from them and please help us to report them. Anybody can report using his or her own account. Thank you,” the resort island said.
The website failed to include the Banana Island’s logo, a simple ‘About Us’ section, contact details, and a copyright notice on the bottom of the homepage.
The platform also requested cryptocurrency payments for the tickets using Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency exchange platform.
This is despite Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) warning against dealing with any unlicensed financial institution or service provider. QCB released the statement last month following the launch of CoinMENA, the first regional digital asset exchange, in Qatar.
Some of the icons for the concerts also lead back to the website’s home page. It also claims that it is selling 15,000 tickets of each artist’s concert, which will allegedly take place between 18-20 November.
