Dubai Shopping Festival is a must-visit phenomenon of shopping in Dubai

Dubai has earned itself the reputation of a global leisure hub. It is the Mecca of shopping, with exclusive and lavish shopping malls like Mall of the Emirates, Deira City Centre, Mirdif City Centre, Dubai Mall, Dubai Festival City Mall, Arabian Centre, Lamcy Plaza, Ibn Battuta Mall, BurJuman, Dubai Outlet Mall, Al Ghurair Centre and Mercato, each offering not just a great shopping experience, but also a social and lifestyle experience. The thing about shopping in Dubai is that the experience by itself is enchanting and intriguing. It has emerged as the most popular shopping destination in the world beating mega cities like Paris, London, New York and Beijing.

Dubai hosts 2 shopping festivals a year, during which malls offer massive discounts, raffles and entertainment, from fireworks to flash mobs. Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) runs for a month from the first week of January – and with 2015 marking the 20th edition, this year’s event promises to be grander than ever. Dubai shopping malls are paradise for shopaholics from all over the world.

A leader had a dream in 1996 to reinforce Dubai's position as a major retail hub in the region. The dream materialized into a festival — that event turned into a billion-dollar shopping extravaganza. The man behind it all was His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and his vision today is called the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF).

Every year, the Dubai Shopping Festival lives up to its promise of staging the most exciting activities for the whole family inspired by the theme One World, One Family, One Festival. It is that time of year when the world comes to shop in Dubai. But the city offers more than just shopping bargains and killer deals during the month-long festival. Visitors are treated to a cultural kaleidoscope as the city plays host to myriad traditional and cultural art forms from around the globe. Wild beats of tribal Africa to soul-stirring music of the Sufis, pulsating rhythms of the Pakistani dhols to Indian bhangra. 

Dubai transforms itself into a theatre of the world as international artists entertain an audience as different and diverse as their art forms. Launched in February 1996, Dubai shopping festival is the city’s longest-running event, an annual, billion-dollar shopping and entertainment extravaganza that is as integral to Dubai. Today, it boasts the participation of more than 70 shopping malls and 3,000 retailers citywide, in public parks, beachfronts, shopping malls and more. In the past four to five years, the DSF has grown so much that it attracts up to 4.5 million visitors during month long festival.