The Dubai Jazz Festival is one of the most successful events that take place annually. It’s a great opportunity for people to enjoy good music outdoors and experience a relaxed festival atmosphere. The spectrum of acts that take place at the Jazz Festival is broad; whether it’s Jazz, Rock or Pop, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Various legends have performed at this event, such as the Rock giants Deep Purple for instance. This year the crowd will be granted a chance to witness guitar legend Santana performing live among other great acts.
One of the great things that make the Jazz Festival so special is that it’s all about the music, but in a very chilled atmosphere. There are two stages that acts perform on, a main stage that’s used on weekends and a smaller stage during the weekdays. This year the Jazz Festival has launched a great concept; you can register online and attend the gigs on the smaller stage during the weekdays for FREE! All you have to do is register online and print out the registration paper. Easy, free, and a guaranteed enjoyment of a great night out. The parking issue a lot of people faced the previous years was also fixed, there’s a whole huge sand area dedicated to concert attendees now. It’s easy to find and not as far as the parking the previous years. There are also shuttle buses that will pick you up from or drop you to Dubai Festival City Center.
As mentioned above, the smaller stage, also known as “Toyota Stage” is for smaller acts on weekdays. In front of the stage are lots of wooden benches, so people can really sit down, relax and enjoy the music while having a good bite or a nice drink. There are several food and drinks booths at the venue, including Pizza, Hotdogs, Coffee or alcoholic beverages. A new concept was introduced this year; At the food/beverage booths you cannot pay directly, you have to purchase coupons at a special stall and ‘pay’ with these vouchers. The coupons are sold as 50dhs vouchers and you can buy goods in that worth. In addition to that, there are various art stalls that offer handmade goods, paintings and jewelry. It’s definitely worth a look. There also is a whole stall for Melody House, musical instruments. They are more than happy to allow you to try out different instruments and who knows, discover some hidden talents maybe?
Overall, there’s a lot to do. The music is the focal point, but apart from that there are several interesting things and places you can check out WHILE enjoying the music.
If you’d planned to go to the Jazz festival don’t forget to:
- If you’re going during the week, register online, print out your registration confirmation, and enjoy the night for free!
- For food and beverages purchase a coupon rather than first getting into a queue and then having to leave again to purchase a coupon.
- Don’t carry big notes with you, chances are, change is hard to find.
- There are lots of goodies to collect, so stroll around and check out the different booths
- Have fun and enjoy the music.
- Bring a jacket; it gets really chilly at night!
Reviewed by: Jamie Tofu
Photography by: Alexandr Antozzi
