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Posts tagged dubai
Dubai International Film Festival
Dec 8th
Dubai continues its attempt to put itself on the cultural map by hosting an International Film Festival this week. Wednesday sees the launch of the 6th DIFF (Dubai International Film Festival) which aims to “Lead in building cultural understanding through creative achievement in film”. This years event will feature 168 films from 55 countries including 13 international premieres, It will be held at Madinat Arena at the Madinat Jumeirah resort.
Queen Noor of Jordan will be providing the Keynote Speech at this year’s festival which is being attended by a host of film stars such as Matt Dillon, George Clooney, Christina Ricci, Omar Sharif and Mandy Moore.
“We are honoured to have Her Majesty Queen Noor with us this year, and we look forward to a ‘full house’, given her status as an inspirational role model across the Arab world and globally admired as a humanitarian. We are also grateful to the three industry representatives, who will also provide a forum for lively discussion.”
An important part of the event is the Cultural Bridge programme which “explores ways to unite all nationalities, which is exemplified in the core slogan of the festival – ‘Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds’”. Other satellite events include the Dubai film festival charity gala which will feature an auction to raise money and awareness for an HIV/Aids charity.
Despite the recent drops in share value Dubai continues to spend heavily in order to gain international attention. The Film Festival is just one of many events this year which aimed to portray Dubai as a main player in the international culture scene. Other events encouraging people to hop on flights to Dubai include the Dubai Sound City Festival and Art Dubai.
Tennis at 1,050 ft
Nov 17th
I know it’s a bit old but this video still manages to amaze me. I’m not particularly scarred of heights but sometimes a video manages to make me feel nauseousness (for example this one of the El Camino Del Rey trail). The video in question features Roger Federer and Andre Agassi playing a game of tennis on top of the 1050 foot high Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.
The Burj Al Arab features a helipad on top of the 28 double-storey floors so that rich guests to travel to and from the hotel in style. The hotel in on a man made island 920 ft off shore and is otherwise only accessible via a purpose built bridge. You can see the hotel from some flights to Dubai, be sure to keep an eye out for any brave tennis stars.
Personally I wouldn’t be able to play Tennis in that situation, I would be clinging to the floor crying. As you can see from the video it can get quite windy on top of the hotel and there is no wall around the helipad. All it would take is a strong gust of wind and a misplaced foot and it would be game, set and match.
Dubai Sound City Festival
Nov 9th
Dubai has been getting some major international attention of late mostly because of the recent Grand Prix and the forthcoming opening of the world’s tallest hotel. Another event of note was the three day Sound City festival which featured 78 bands, artists and DJs from around the world.
The event featured showcases from established and new band split between seven venues throughout the city similar to the South-by-Southwest festival in America (East by Middle East?). Headliners Echo and the Bunnymen had to pull out at the last minute due to the illness of singer Ian McCulloch but they were replaced by the Super Furry Animals. In all five acts did not perform including Hip Hop legends De La Soul. Other than the no-shows the event was considered a success.
“The response has been hugely positive. There were between five and six thousand people here on Friday and there’s a great willingness for people who want to get on board next year.”
The festival was organized by David Pichilingi who also runs Liverpool Sound City. As well as live shows there were panel discussions and keynote speeches featuring big players from the international music industry. As well as some great bands there were a few old has beens hanging around like Ocean Colour Scene and the Human League. Perhaps next year when the festival is more established they will be able to draw some better artisits. No matter how cheap flights to Dubai get I’m not going to travel that far to see The Automatic and The Wombats.
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