- Mr. Al Nabuda, tell me, please, have you personally not been bored with hosting the annual summer festival for 10 years already?
- How can it get bored ?! Are you bored with the holidays? When fun reigns around, and without exception, everyone receives gifts? On the contrary, we are proud that we listened in 1998 to the idea of the current ruler of Dubai, the prime minister and vice-president of the UAE - Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who then served as crown prince of the emirate of Dubai, and held the first festival "Dubai Summer Surprises".
Today, when our festival has come to its 10th anniversary, I can say with great pride that our ruler is a brilliant person with a unique and strategic vision. After all, remember how life in Dubai literally froze with the onset of summer. The streets were empty, hotel occupancy tended to zero. Those who could afford, flew out of the country to Europe or America, and those who could not - were exhausted from boredom, sitting at home by TVs. About children and say nothing. As soon as classes ended in schools, the city had a “dead season”, and the children were left to their own devices while their parents were at work.
And so, when we held the first festival, which was aimed only at children and was held under the motto “Great fun for the little ones,” we realized that families from neighboring countries came to Dubai to share a fun and diverse summer with us.
- And their parents went with the children. So?
- That's right. And so that parents would not be bored, we began to try every year to make the festival program more diverse. Weeks of thematic surprises were annually modified and updated, but the most attractive moment for adults was an exciting shopping experience with a lot of dizzying discounts and gifts that were played out every day in the city's shopping centers participating in the festival.
- And with what results did you come up with the 10th anniversary of Dubai Summer Surprises?
- With amazing. Fair. Today, people from different countries of the world come to summer Dubai, who are attracted by summer sales, holiday events, and great leisure opportunities. The occupancy of hotels in the summer months is not inferior to the winter, it is not so easy to find available rooms. Sales volumes of shopping centers in the city are estimated in hundreds of millions of dirhams. And this is despite the fact that the city is embraced by construction, and you have to get to very many points of the festival events through the famous Dubai traffic jams.
- There are idle skeptics who say that the summer festival, however, like the Dubai shopping, which takes place in winter, is becoming obsolete. That people living in the UAE and often visiting tourists are already bored and that they have already seen everything. How do you feel about such statements?
- Firstly, I do not listen to stupid conversations. I just don’t have time for this. And secondly, having organized DLS for ten years now, I can tell you that skeptics and critics are cunning. During the festival, more than 200 various events take place, because the period of its holding is almost three months. Well, show me a person who can attend all the events and programs without exception. I personally manage to visit 4-5 of them. And judging the entire festival by several events is very subjective and incorrect. Now, when these skeptics visit everywhere and come to me, I will listen with pleasure to their point of view.
- During the Dubai Trade Festival, which is held in the winter months, and which you also lead, the streets of the city are decorated with hand-painted figures of camels, horses and falcons. They are very unusual and expressive. Whose image awaits us next year?
- Alas, this page of the Dubai Trade Festival is closed. We planned to make a trilogy consisting of the main symbols of our country - a falcon decorating the emblem of the UAE, an Arabian horse and a camel, and we created it. This project, among other things, was charitable, all funds from the sale of painted figures were transferred to children's clinics and homes for the disabled.
But the summer festival next year will delight our guests, because his fun emblem - a character named Modhesh - will have a sister. Artists are now working on her image.
- We know that at the anniversary festival you launch all themed weeks with surprises at the same time, to give guests and residents of the city even more opportunities for fun. And what else awaits us?
- Surprises and surprises to keep them secret for the time being. So, I will not tell you about them in advance, it’s better to see for yourself. But, believe me, we have prepared a lot of interesting things for the anniversary.
- And the Russian artists will come again?
- Of course, many teams from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other CIS countries traditionally participate in Dubai summer surprises. And the current festival will not be an exception, circus, dance and folk groups will come to us. But still, we want to show our guests the history, culture and traditions of Arabia. And this, by the way, is also for many visitors to the UAE a discovery, a surprise, if you like.
- So what, in your opinion, will be the tenth summer festival?
- Take my word for it, it will be 10 out of 10! In everything. Come to Dubai this summer yourself - you won’t regret it.
- Thank you, Mr. Al Nabuda. See you soon at the festival.
