By Staff www.khaleejtimes.com
It’s like a carnival! Everyone is outside, the weather is great, and we’re getting to see some beautiful cars!” screamed Joshua McDougall from Connecticut who had his three-year-old son Adam perched on his shoulder at the Madinat Jumeirah roundabout, as the police sirens roared in chorus with the helicopters above filming the parade of magnificently shiny luxury cars that were a part of the Dubai Grand Parade on Friday.
Besides Joshua and Adam, hundreds of families lined the streets of Dubai as they patiently waited to catch a glimpse of the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and Range Rover wrapped in dirham coins. Tomoko Tsuchida with her three toddlers and husband had walked across from her Palm Jumeirah residence and waited half an hour in the sun to watch the parade. “The boys and my husband are here for the cars. I don’t know much about these but I am here for them.” Her youngest had even gotten along his collection of dinky cars and was making zooming noises in excitement.
The ambience was reminiscent of a beach festival. Everyone — from businessmen in suits who had cut short work meetings to grandparents from south India visiting families — was out on the roads waving flags with logos of the motor show. Almost everyone out there had cameras, iPads, and camera phones if not tripods with telescope lenses.
The parade started a little after 3pm from the Trade Centre Roundabout and went on to the first spectator zone at Madinat Jumeirah — where there was no hotel parking — and continued on to the spectator zone at Downtown Dubai around 3.30pm, running only slightly behind schedule, and finally ending up back at Dubai World Trade Centre to be parked at the post-parade cars gallery of the International Motor Show 2013 at 5pm. More info, gallery
