UAE buildings light up for St Patrick's Day, including Burj Al Arab and Dubai Airport

Landmark buildings across the UAE are going green to mark St Patrick's Day on Wednesday.

Burj Al Arab, Dubai Frame and Dubai International Airport are among 23 places across the Emirates to sign up to illuminate for Ireland's national day of celebration.

Click through the gallery above to see more of the UAE's buildings taking part.

The viridescent display is part of a global initiative by Tourism Ireland to mark the occasion in 2021.

Dubai International Airport glows green for St Patrick's Day. It's the first time that the airport – one of the world's busiest – has joined Tourism Ireland's Global Greening. Courtesy Tourism Ireland

Landmarks, buildings and places of interest around the world joined in the glow-up, with 670 landmarks across 66 countries taking part.

Going green for the first time in the UAE are Dubai International Airport, Palm Jumeirah Monorail and the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Centre for Cultural Understanding.

The largest fountain in the world, Dubai's The Palm Fountain, also glowed in green and hosted a Riverdance-themed performance.

Ireland's Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai and the recently opened Address Beach Resort, Dubai also took part in the global glow.

Burj Al Arab, The Abu Dhabi Edition and the Hilton Garden Inn Ras Al Khaimah all joined in, too. Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, will glow green at 8.40pm on St Patrick's Day.

Going green around the globe: from Sydney Opera House to the London Eye

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17/03/2021, Sydney, Australia – Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening initiative to mark St Patrick’s Day sees hundreds of iconic landmarks and sites around the world light up in green on 17 March – keeping the island of Ireland to the fore in a positive light, on the day when people everywhere are thinking about Ireland.
PIC SHOWS: The Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, joins Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative to mark St Patrick’s Day.
Pic – Fiora Sacco (no repro fee)
Further press info – Niamh Doherty, Tourism Ireland 085-856 6429 — Australia's Sydney Opera House joined Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening again this year. Courtesy Tourism Ireland.

Sydney Opera House joined Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening once again this year. The initiative first originated on St Patrick's Day in Australia 11 years ago when the famous landmark was illuminated in green.

New attractions to join the effort include the most northerly "greening" in the world – a postbox at the summit of Oretoppen peak in Norway, 350 kilometres above the Arctic Circle.

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16/03/2015, London – Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening initiative, to celebrate the island of Ireland and St Patrick, has gone from strength to strength – from its beginning in 2010, with just the Sydney Opera House going green, to this year, when more than 150 landmark buildings and iconic sites across the world will turn a shade of green for our national day.
PIC SHOWS: The iconic London Eye, illuminated in green as part of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative, to celebrate the island of Ireland and St Patrick.
Pic – Matt Alexander/PA Wire (no repro fee)
Further press info – Sinéad Grace, Tourism Ireland 087 685 9027 — The London Eye illuminates for Tourism Ireland's Global Greening on St Patrick's Day 2021. Courtesy Tourism Ireland

Other new places include the Torre Costanera in Chile, which is one of South America's tallest buildings; Bled Castle in Slovenia; Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier in California; and the Sekenani Gate at the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

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These new sites joined others that have participated in previous years, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls and the London Eye.

"More than 70 million people around the world claim links to the island of Ireland and St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to reconnect them with their heritage," said Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland.

Dubai's desert glows green for St Patricks Day. Courtesy Tourism Ireland

"This year, against the ongoing backdrop of Covid-19, our St Patrick’s Day programme around the world is more important than ever before."

UAE buildings light up for St Patrick's Day, including Burj Al Arab and Dubai Airport

A whopping 670 landmarks in 66 countries are joining in to celebrate the Irish holiday

Going green around the globe: from Sydney Opera House to the London Eye