The all-time loved yearly shopping extravaganza aka the Dubai Shopping Festival is back in action with its 26th edition. The festival ends on January 30, 2021, so pack your bags, but with enough space to bring back all the steal deals! And bring back memories too with Raffles, fireworks, dining and entertainment galore!
DSF has always been a hit with shoppers, families and music enthusiasts alike, owing to its awe-inspiring schedule of live concerts, enthralling fireworks and showbiz attractions.
This year in its 26th edition, it’s up there in all its glory and observing essential welfare protocols and superior measures. Dubai lasts to top the way when it comes to refreshing the preferred culture of live events and festivals, that the very spirit of ‘community’ is built on. Being one of the benign cities to travel to in 2021, it is indeed setting the benchmark for open events this year.
If you are heading to Dubai for the festival, you can emphasis on fun-filled live events, delightful gastronomic experiences and reduced merchandizing therapy, while relaxing secure that Dubai has their safety, floating at the very highest of its agenda.
Here are the 10 things you absolutely should not miss at the DSF 2020-21:
Daily drone light shows
These two themed shows, consecutively u, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm are a pioneering and astounding pictorial delight as one explores the city and rejoices its makeover. It is incredible looking at the Dubai coastline dipping into a display of perky shades as Bluewaters Island and The Beach set the sight for Dubai Shopping Festival Drone Light Show.
Pop up at Al Muraqabat & Hatta
This pop-up outdoor market is a favourite with the families as one gets to ascertain indigenous artists and vendors alongside appetizing nibbles from resident food trucks. Bands and performers make the time sprightlier with live enactments the whole day long.
Sweet & savoury at the Salt Camp
If you are a foodie like me, you would have definitely been to Salt, the famed burger place. These two attached dining areas aka Salt & Sugar offer delectable savoury meals and blissful desserts. Go for the wagyu beef sliders and a thick shake of your choice…yum is the word!!
Go stylish at Etisalat Market OTB
Snuggled just behind the much loved Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall, Etisalat Market OTB (Outside The Box) benevolences an enjoyable blend of indigenous and global brands alongside food trucks and animate showbiz that one can relish in Dubai’s sunlit winter. 2021’s theme is new and retro and focuses on the premium splendour and style gems of South Korea.
Amusement galore from performing arts of Dubai
Sample this….. Roaming amusement at Dubai’s utmost treasured retail spaces!! Ranging from Ocho the Octopus, a 4m high digital puppet or a sequence of neon creatures, vie for your attention and how!. A brand new Flow Artist aka the Emirati circus performer amuses you with his unconventional dance moves and crafty tricks.
Get lucky with the Supercar Raffle
Absolutely the perfect way to begin 2021 if you happen to win this. The vital draw in the antiquity of DSF is a give-away of the AED 6 million W Motors Feny SuperSport to a solitary super fortunate winner. If you happen to buy a special scale model of the Fenyr SuperSport for AED 1,500 until 30 March 2021, you get a raffle coupon, which could be your gamble to win a tailored variety of the Fenyr SuperSport.
Get enthralled at Al Seef Market presented by Al Foah
The Al Seef Market, an aesthetic amalgam of Emirati legacy and modernism, is home to modern-day products as well as old-fashioned handicraft made by native craftsmen! Themed weeks enhance on to the appeal of the market, with child-friendly workshops, food- but of course and other exhilarating activities like coffee fest, bubble and kite fest etc. united with enthralling fireworks every evening at 8:30 PM.
Must-see exhibitions
I would definitely recommend viewing a touching sequence of new works by Iraqi artist Hiwa K ‘Do you know what you are burning?’- At the Jameel Arts Centre. The much-admired artist grabs subjects of immigration, nationality, and spirit in a single display that results in his entrance in Asia and the Middle East.
Ripe market at Academy Park
This weekly market replete with organic produce and gratifying canapés on offer from an eclectic assortment of food trucks is a must-visit. What I love about this market is that businesses and individuals from all over the Emirates unite here and offer a gamut of products. They up their ante with live performances, free yoga sessions and a lot more.
Eat a Xia Long Bao
If you happen to be at Dubai Mall do stop by at Din Tai Fung offering gorgeous views of the fountain. The Mall Of Emirates outlet is brilliant too and offers a view of the buzzing mall. If you are lucky you may get a table soon enough, else it’s certainly worth the wait to lap up the famed Xiao long bao aka the soup dumplings, trust me when the hot, delicious broth reaches your penchant you will realise what all the fuss is about.