Dubai Shopping Festival

The Dubai Shopping Festival was created back in 1996 as purely a retail event; however over the past 10 years the festival has been redeveloped, revamped and repackaged and now it is world renowned as a first class entertainment event for all the family to enjoy.

The motto for the Dubai Shopping Festival nowadays is ‘one world, one family, one festival’ and this entirely sums up the concept of this internationally inspired, family fun experience that combines the very best in shopping, entertainment and excitement.

In 2005 the Dubai Shopping Festival had its best year ever and attracted in excess of 3.3 million visitors who spent in excess of 1.02 billion pounds - both figures represent significant increases on the 2004 figures and already tour operators and hoteliers in Dubai have confirmed that the numbers expected to attend the 2006 festival will exceed the 2005 figure.

The attractions and delights of the festival are manifold.  There are of course incredible sales, discounts and bargains to be bagged in every single store in each of Dubai’s many shopping malls and there are also amazing daily competitions and firework displays and many chances to sample the delights of Dubai life.  Of particular interest each year is the famous Night Souq experience where shoppers can browse and buy at a leisurely pace beneath the stars until 2 or 3 in the morning and sample the flavours of the Middle East at any one of a number of food stalls and cafes in the vicinity.  And the daily competitions where one can win massive cash prizes or a brand new car each and every day are also hugely popular of course.

In terms of the entertainment attractions that visitors can enjoy during the month long Dubai Shopping Festival these include fashion shows, the Dubai jazz festival, nightly firework displays, kids shows and carnivals.  And of course visitors who come to Dubai for the Shopping Festival can also spend time away from the organised extravaganza and take a safari into the desert, play a round of golf, go sailing or enjoy Dubai’s culture and heritage by visiting any one of Dubai’s many historic buildings, sites of interest, museums or galleries.

Following on from the inimitable success of the Shopping Festival Dubai has recently created Dubai Summer Surprises which is a summertime sister to the Shopping Festival that takes place at the start of the year.  The Summer Surprises runs for ten weeks and is focused on the malls around Dubai with daily events organised for all the family.

Anyone wishing to visit Dubai for the Shopping Festival of the Summer Surprises can find out about daily scheduled events online before they travel and also learn about the dates for forthcoming festivals.  One word of warning though - once you visit the Dubai Shopping Festival you’ll want to go back year after year.