Source: www.khaleejtimes.com
DUBAI – Millions of residents and visitors from around the world will take home memorable magical moments of a 32-day retail bonanza as the 17th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) draws to a close today.
The DSF has lived up to its promise of staging the most exciting activities and offering the best shopping experience for the whole family, inspired by the theme “One World, One Family, One Festival”, and its marketing slogan for this year “Dubai at its Best”.
Laila Suhail, CEO of Dubai Events and Promotions (DEPE), an agency of the Department of Economic Development and the organiser of Dubai Shopping Festival, said: “With the end of another successful journey, we would like to emphasise that this would not have been possible without the long-standing and whole-hearted support of our partners in the private sector, which is a reflection of how different synergies could work in unison to successfully put together a monumental extravaganza such as the Dubai Shopping Festival year after year.” Ibrahim Saleh, Coordinator-General and Deputy CEO of DEPE, said: “This year’s festivities again transformed Dubai into a mega centre for shopping and entertainment. The support and cooperation extended by various government entities, big and small, played a crucial part in ensuring that DEPE was able to organise all these activities in a smooth and efficient way.”
The DSF began on January 5 with the longest fireworks in DSF history that stretched over a 6km distance drawing rapturous applause from residents and visitors alike.
People also got an opportunity to watch a shorter version of the fireworks display by Al Zarooni Group everyday from Al Seef Street, the cultural hub of DSF.
The “shopping at its best” seems to have worked on the hordes of DSF visitors, who have been scouring over 70 participating malls and more than 6,000 retail outlets to grab the best offers possible. As a result, malls and retail stores in Dubai have been inundated with shoppers trying to make the most of the shopping bonanza, last-minute deals and offers.
The magnets that draw crowds to DSF every year are undoubtedly the mega raffles, and this year they have again succeeded in transforming the lives of scores of people and creating true rags-to-riches stories in homes across the world.
The non-stop festivities got a fitting finale with world-class entertainment on the last weekend, spearheaded by the festival’s showpiece event this year – Dubai Fashion 2012, which saved its best for the last with the “Longest Catwalk”, a dazzling show of pomp and pageantry by 120 models on a 120-metre outdoor catwalk and the “Biggest Makeover” which saw 100 stylists provided by Paris Gallery apply makeover on 100 models in record time at The Dubai Mall.
The Night Souq at Al Riqqa Street presented visitors with a unique night time shopping experience, as well as offering daily variety entertainment that lasted till 1am.
DSF 2012, in fact, provided residents and visitors a taste of the best in everything that the vibrant city of Dubai has to offer.
