Al Seef Dubai celebrates Dubai Shopping Festival opening. WAM

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

The 25th edition of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) kicked off on Thursday with an incredible Grand Opening event at Burj Park, Downtown Dubai that attracted over 20,000 people from different nationalities, both residents and tourists, in celebration of this momentous milestone.

The free-to-attend event was graced by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE National Olympic Committee and Chairman of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award.

From 3:00pm onwards, visitors to Burj Park, Downtown Dubai enjoyed a vast variety of events including a dedicated kids’ craft station, a kid-friendly ball pit, a DSF jigsaw game, and a ‘Golden Ticket Booth’, a glitter booth and much more. Just after 8:00pm, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed set off the celebrations with the click of a button which signalled the start of a spectacular laser and light show, a DSF projection on Burj Khalifa, a fireworks display and a dedicated song for DSF by Rashed Al Majed, a modification of his signature song ‘Dubai Danat Al Donia.’

This was followed by the performance of three renowned artists; Cheb Khaled, Sherine Abdel Wahab and Hussain Al Jassmi. Visitors to Dubai Mall were also able to enjoy the celebrations through the big screens placed around the promenade.

As well as the event in Burj Park, Downtown Dubai, fans of late Egyptian artist Umm Kulthum enjoyed a hologram concert, accompanied by a live orchestra of 20 musicians at Dubai Opera. Across the city, a series of pop-up markets also kicked off packed full of shopping, dining, art and cultural entertainment from around the world. These markets include; Al Seef, Last Exit Al Khawaneeji, Hatta, and Al Rigga.

At 9:00pm, a series of spectacular fireworks displays took over Dubai’s sky with shows at The Beach, La Mer, Al Seef, Dubai Festival City Mall and Dubai Creek.

Visitors to malls in Dubai enjoyed up to 75 per cent off from more than 1,000 brands across 4000 stores as well as Majid Al Futtaim’s exclusive 12-hour mega sale to mark the special occasion, offering shoppers up to 90 per cent reductions across participating stores.

Burj Park, Downtown Dubai will be expecting thousands of people today as well to be part of the second day of the Grand Opening and watch the performance of One Direction member Liam Payne, and singer songwriter Jorja Smith.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands from the residents to tourists thronged leading malls across Dubai to grab and became the first to enjoy the bundles of sale promotions as part of the month-long DSF.  

The major attraction on the first day of the festival was leading malls from city centres, Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Burjman, Al Ghurair Centre as well as independent retailers across the emirates where the shoppers were welcomed with latest promotions under the glittering banners of DSF.

The retailers dealing in fashion like garments, foot wares, accessories are the main attraction for the shoppers but to entice the residence, the leading home furniture designers have also announced unique promotions.

To double the mood of the shoppers, Al Huzaifa Furniture at Al Wasl decided to continue the theme of Christmas through the first week of the festive season. The festival season started with the early party with Santa Claus to entertain and enthrall the visitors who dropped by Al Wasl branch. “It was a great opportunity to share the joy and spirit of this festive season by meeting everyone’s favorite visitor from the North Pole, Mr. Santa as Al Huzaifa was all decked out for this festive season in the jingling of bells and the festive decorations at every corner of the showroom,” the official said.

The visitors had the chance to capture memorable photos with Santa and take home a printed copy. The children received gifts end enjoyed gingerbread cookies and other tasty treats.

Santa carefully listened to the children’s wishes and even entertained the children with a magic trick or two. The magic of Christmas is undeniable. It’s a time of goodwill and spending time with your family and friends.

The Al Huzaifa team was delighted to celebrate this very special time of the year with their valuable customers.

However, the Western Furniture announces incredible discounts, from 25% to 75% off on the finest of home furniture, from across a range of niche brands, to revamp their homes. With the New Year around the corner, DSF comes like a breather to invest in uber-comfy cum luxury furniture, and remodel your home to welcome the year 2020 with great poise.

Gayatri Dongre, General Manager of Western Furniture said, “We live in a generation that is fast-paced and demands everything in the blink of an eye, especially when it comes to designing a home from scratch or remodelling it. Western Furniture has all that a shopper needs to make or remake his home within no time. This DSF, shoppers not only get to design their homes and offices with the finest & most beautiful furniture, but they also get to do incredible savings through our huge discounts. Each year we part take in the DSF to offer crazy discounts on Italian designer brands at crazy discounts and this year we have increased the discounts for shoppers to make the best of this festive season. To top it, we are also offering complimentary design services to ease our consumer’s burden in designing their home or office spaces.”

To mark the 25th year of DSF, The Dubai Mall is giving five Emirates Skywards members the chance to become a DSF Skywards Millionaire. Members spending over Dhs 350 are eligible to participate. All you must do is scan your receipts on The Dubai Mall App to enter the draw between January 3 - February 6, 2020. One winner will be selected every week and announced on @thedubaimall social media Instagram platform.

After its successful debut last year, The Dubai Mall will bring back the much-loved Street Fest that promises an explosion of live entertainment, events and performances from January 9 - 18, 2020. The Dubai Mall will offer the perfect canvas for an exquisite carnival of theatrical street performances by over 20 award-winning international artists. Breath-taking large-scale visual spectacles, outstanding stunts, living statues, roaming acts and more will amaze audience-members of all ages.