Dubai Shopping Festival dates announced: seven weeks of discounts, concerts and events

Annual Dubai Shopping Festival will run for 46 days this time around

Dubai Shopping Festival features fireworks and drone shows. Photo: DFRE

The Dubai Shopping Festival is set to make a grand return at the end of this year, running for close to seven weeks, from December 15 to January 29.

Organised by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, the 28th DSF will offer not only discounts on shopping, but also big-name concerts, meal deals, subsidised hotel rates, roaming entertainment, fireworks and other family-friendly activities, and life-altering raffles and prizes.

While DSF usually ropes in the many malls peppered across the city as well as thousands of high-street and high-end retailers, it also offers a dedicated al fresco arena to visitors who’d rather spend their time outdoors. Etisalat MOTB is held at Burj Park, a lush space with views of Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountains.

The Market Outside the Box retail concept is replete with pop-up stalls selling accessories, apparel, art, homeware and other flea-market-style trinkets from boutique vendors, as well as a convoy of food trucks in a festive ambience. The experience is punctuated by plenty of performances and concerts, details of which are yet to be finalised.

Elsewhere, visitors and residents can look forward to the DSF Drones Light Show and the Dubai Lights Exhibition. While the venues for these have not been announced, the performances are usually held at The Beach on JBR, opposite Bluewaters Island. The free-to-watch shows involve a swarm of hundreds of drones, entertaining crowds with spectacular lights and storytelling for close to five minutes at a time. Last year, for example, a show titled Dubai, From the Past to the Present charted the city's journey from old Dubai to new Dubai, to the backdrop of the official DSF song by Rashed Al-Majed, Dubai Kawkab Aakhar, which translates as “Dubai is another planet”.

Scroll through the gallery below to see the varied offerings at DSF through the years