Jumeirah | September 2016

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Get snap-happy

With our most instagrammable dishes

alicia keys As you’ve never seen her before

Do you hear the people sing?

Will Dubai Opera match Europe’s grand institutions?

Step into luxury

Virtual reality is giving a window into luxury

CURATING TIME SINCE 1950 seddiqi.com

LET TIME SLIP AWAY He wandered the land and made marks in the sand, eventually slipping away from Time.

Time watched and smiled at the daydreamer for a while before revealing his presence again.

#MakeTimeYourOwn

Our quest for perfection.

Senator Cosmopolite

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Editor-in-Chief

Image: Zoltan Tombor Photography

Jumeirah Magazine

september 2016

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Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing Partner & Group Editor

lan Fairservice Editorial Director

Gina Johnson Goup Editor

Sophia Serin Art Director

Karen Evans Acting Editor

Tahira Yaqoob tahira.yaqoob@motivate.ae Picture Editor

Diana Bell-Heather Contributors

Laura Freeman, Alex Lane, Danae Mercer, Louise Quick, Gareth Rees, Gerry Winter

Contents

Publisher – Luxury & Lifestyle

Negar Ghodstinat negar@motivate.ae

Monitor

General Manager – Production

S Sunil Kumar

Essential news and previews

Production Manager

R Murali Krishnan

17 City watch Explore some of the most exciting events happening this month

Production Supervisor

Venita Pinto Chief Commercial Officer

Anthony Milne Group Sales Manager

Ziad Saleh ziad@motivate.ae For Jumeirah

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22 The enchanted forest Cirque du Soleil somersaults into town with its global hit Varekai

Charlie Taylor

25 Take a moonwalk At the Chinese Moon Festival in Shanghai

Featured Head Office: Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, PO Box 2331, Dubai UAE, Tel: +971 4 427 3000, E-mail: motivate@motivate.ae Dubai Media City: Office 508, 5th Floor, Building 8, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845 Abu Dhabi: PO Box 43072, UAE, Tel: +971 2 677 2005, Fax: +971 2 677 0124, E-mail: editor-wo@motivate.ae London: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK, E-mail: motivateuk@motivate.ae Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai

28 Girl on fire The queen of R&B Alicia Keys puts her best face forward 34 Music gets the best of ME The Middle East is a land of opportunity for upcoming musical talent

CALIBER RM 07-01

september 2016

Contents

Lifestyle 42 Virtual luxury Take a peek inside a more luxurious life without ever leaving home

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48 Picture this With so many foodies on Instagram, when should you put the camera away?

Travel 56 Art that moves The wheels are in motion for a public art movement in Dubai 60 A race back in time The Goodwood Revival is a glorious return to motor racing’s golden era 66 Do you hear the people sing?

Will Dubai Opera be on a par with Europe’s grand institutions?

74 A capital time Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi really is all that glitters 78 Featured spaces Jumeirah’s libraries are the perfect retreat for booklovers 82 The high life Scape Restaurant & Bar, Burj Al Arab Terrace, Dubai

Level Kids, City Walk 2 Dubai Mob: +971 55 3258940 Tryano, Yas Mall Abu Dhabi Tel: +971 2 2054641 info@luiolei.com +971 4 4579266

City Watch

Explore some of the most exciting events happening this month

Dubai

NortherN humour September 13 to 22 Dubai’s long-running Laughter Factory comedy night hosts British stand-up Justin Moorhouse for a 10-night run. Best-known for playing Young Kenny in British comic Peter Kay’s hit sitcom Phoenix Nights, Moorhouse has also appeared in the popular soap Coronation Street, set in Salford near his home city of Manchester.

Justin moorhouse, Laughter Factory, Dubai.

Living Doll

justinmoorhouse.com

September 15 to 17 The Russian State Ballet will perform the acclaimed 19th century comic ballet Coppelia in the new Dubai Opera house. Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter’s libretto follows the fortunes of a young villager named Franz, who shuns his fiancee Swanilda in favour of pursuing the alluring Coppelia, only to discover she is in fact a lifesize doll created by toymaker Dr Coppelius. The Orchestra of Siberia accompanies the dancers with Leo Delibes’ famous score.

Image: Julia Wesely

Coppelia, Dubai opera, Dubai. dubaiopera.com

CLaSSiC Pair September 9 Award-winning Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid and Swiss-born pianist Ariane Haering team up for a performance in Dubai Community compiled by Gareth Rees Images: Getty

Theatre and Arts Centre (Ductac). Schmid has forged a reputation as one of the world’s leading violinists, performing with orchestras

Shifting Borders

including the Vienna Philharmonic, London’s

September to october 31

Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Royal

In the exhibition Melting the Sky, Italian-Lebanese writer and poet Cristiana de Marchi and Kuwaiti visual artist Monira Al Qadiri explore the disruptive effect of globalisation on the idea of the nation state and national identity. The exhibition in Alserkal Avenue’s 1X1 gallery

Philharmonia Orchestra, St Petersburg Concertgebouw.

Benjamin Schmid and ariane haering, Ductac, Dubai. enbdclassics.com

will run until the end of October. melting the Sky, 1X1, Dubai. 1x1artgallery.com

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Abu DhAbi/istAnbul

YALLA coMedY september 9 to 10 The first Arab Comedy Festival boasts an impressive line-up of Arab comedians, including Saudi comic trio Fadi Al Shehri, Ibrahim Saleh and Ibrahim Khairallah. The Arabic language event takes place over two days in the Yas Mall Town Square, with Emirati comedian Bin Baz hosting the event on Friday and Futaim Al Falasi, the Emirati creator of online Arabic radio programme Taim Show, MC-ing on Saturday.

Arab comedy Festival, Yas Mall Town square, Abu dhabi. thinkflash.ae

Dance-off september 8 to 9 Belgian choreographers Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres Guerrero and Hildegard de Vuyst have incorporated contemporary dance styles such as hip-hop and capoeira into the traditional Arab folk dance dabke to create an hour-long dance performance called Badke.

The show, which makes its UAE debut in the Black Box Theatre in NYU Abu Dhabi’s Arts Centre this month, features 10 young dancers from Ramallah.

Badke, NYuAd Arts centre, Abu dhabi. nyuad-artscenter.org

Music For LiFe september 30 Superstar trance DJ Armin van Buuren continues his Armin Only Embrace world tour with a show in Istanbul’s Life Park, which will include a solo set showcasing van Buuren’s latest album, Embrace. The multiple award-winning DJ will be supported by his collaborators, including rapper Mr Pobz, rock band Kensington, jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, singer-songwriter Cimo Frankel,

Gravitational Pull

pop singer Angel Taylor and vocalists Betsie

until september 18

Larkin and BullySongs.

Not All That Falls Has Wings is a multidisciplinary group exhibition that deals with gravity

Armin van Buuren, Life Park, istanbul.

and gravitas. The show features work by nine artists, including veteran British sculptor

lifepark.com.tr

Phyllida Barlow and Marcel Duchamp prize-winning French artist Cyprien Gaillard. The highlight is three 16mm films from Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader’s influential Fall series. Ader famously disappeared while attempting to cross the Atlantic in a small sailboat in 1975.

Not All That Falls Has Wings, Arter, istanbul. arter.org.tr

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london

FooT In The Door September 17 to 18 One of the best ways to get to know a city is through its architecture. Every building has a story to tell but it is not often the opportunity arises to see beyond their facades. Open House London allows free access to hundreds of the most spectacular buildings in the UK capital. open house London, various locations, London. openhouselondon.org.uk

Future Lives September 17 to 18 The annual FutureFest event explores how all aspects of our lives will be shaped in the future. This year will see expert Ghislaine Boddington investigate the effect technology will have on love while entrepreneur Ruth Amos will examine the future of work, writer and musician Pat Kane considers the future of play and food expert Dr Morgaine Gaye paints a picture of our lifestyles in years to come. The list of speakers includes pop music innovator Brian Eno and author Will Self.

FutureFest, Tobacco Quay, London. futurefest.org

CaPITaL DeSIgn September 17 to 25 The 14th annual London Design Festival celebrates the British capital’s design community with more than 400 events and installations centred in the Victoria and Albert Museum and scattered among other locations across the city. Worth catching is the first London Design Biennale, an exhibition featuring work by more than 30 international designers, which will run from September 7 to 27 in Somerset House.

Art Attack

London Design Festival, various locations,

September 27 to January 8

London. londondesignfestival.com

The Turner Prize, which has been awarded to a British artist under the age of 50 every year since 1984, helped make stars of Gilbert and George, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen, Wolfgang Tillmans and Jake and Dinos Chapman. Tate Britain’s Turner Prize 2016 show features the work of this year’s shortlisted artists, Michael Dean, Helen Martin, Josephine Pryde and Anthea Hamilton.

Turner Prize 2016, Tate Britain, London. tate.org.uk

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frankfurt/Shanghai

PIAno MAn September 3 Piano Man Billy Joel, one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, plays Frankfurt this month. The Commerzbank-Arena show is one of only two European shows on the pop legend’s schedule as he nears the end of his current world tour.

Billy Joel, Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt. billyjoel.com

Happy Chappy Until September 25 Graphic artist Stefan Sagmeister’s The Happy Show exhibition, which has already been a hit in North America and Europe, makes its German debut in Frankfurt’s Museum Angewandte Kunst. The exhibition is the result of Sagmeister’s 10-year attempt to discover what makes us happy. The artist’s findings are displayed in the form of infographics, prints, videos and sculptures.

The Happy Show, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt. museumangewandtekunst.de

In THe FRAMe September 9 to 11 Photofairs Shanghai is an exhibition of fine art photography from across the globe. The third edition of the Photofairs Shanghai, held in the

Race Day September 23 to 25

Shanghai Exhibition Centre, will provide a platform for venues including Blindspot Gallery, ShanghArt, Camera Work, Flowers and Eric Franck Fine Art to display work from artists such as Robert Cap and

With the FIA World Touring Car Championship season drawing to a close, the

Patrick Demarchelier.

competition heads to Shanghai for the Race of China at Shanghai International Circuit.

Photofairs Shanghai 2016, Shanghai exhibition

Argentine driver Jose Maria Lopez, who won last year’s Race of China, is currently in the

Centre, Shanghai. photoshanghai.org

lead and will be chasing another victory to cement his position heading into the final two races in Thailand and Qatar.

Race of China, Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai. fiawtcc.com

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A mystery world in a forest on a volcano, fantastical creatures and death-defying acrobatics and contortionists, all set to an eerie soundtrack – it can only be the enduring magic of Cirque du Soleil. More than 30 years after the company first formed from a group of street performers in Quebec, Canada, the troupe is back in Dubai for a nine-night run of its show Varekai. It begins with the flight of Icarus but unlike the Greek myth of the boy whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, Varekai’s Icarus sets the tone with a series of deft dives and astonishing manoeuvres. There are skilful displays of baton-twirling, acrobats flying high in the air on Russian swings and contortionists forming synchronised silhouettes and incredible feats on aerial straps to follow.

Varekai, which means wherever in the Romany language, has been seen by more than six million people around the world since it first premiered in Montreal in 2002. Its run in Dubai is part of a worldwide tour which sees the fairytale bamboo forest travel to Istanbul next month and around Europe next year.

With more than 30 shows, the world’s largest theatrical production company has toured more than 400 cities in 60-plus countries and entertained more than 160 million spectators.

Varekai runs from September 16 to 24 in the World Trade Centre, Dubai and from October 5 to 9 in the Ulker Arena, Istanbul.

See cirquedusoleil.com/varekai for details

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Image: Perla Global Media costumes: eiko Ishioka © 2015 cirque du soleil Image: Perla Global Media costumes: eiko Ishioka © 2015 cirque du soleil

enchanted forest

Image: Perla Global Media Costumes: Eiko Ishioka Š 2015 Cirque du Soleil

Image: Perla Global Media Costumes: Eiko Ishioka Š 2015 Cirque du Soleil

monitor

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monitor

SHANGHAI MOON One of the most important dates in the Chinese lunar calendar will be marked this month in Shanghai. The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, has its roots in the Zhou dynasty and goes back to a time when people gave thanks to the moon and celebrated a bounteous harvest. Today family members gather to appreciate the beauty of the full moon, eat moon cakes, light lanterns and enjoy dragon costume dances.

In Shanghai, as the moon rises, tables are set up outdoors and laden with moon cakes, melons, soybeans and lotus roots to give thanks. A Shanghainese tradition involves going on a latenight walk to admire the full moon, known as zou yueliang (moon walking). Lujia stone bridge near Xiaodongmen is a popular gathering place as the water below brilliantly reflects the moon.

Another tradition is burning incense altars, known as douxiang, which are colourfully decorated and up to two feet wide. A spectacular display of incense altars can be seen in Nanyuan and on bridges throughout the city. On the Bund, restaurants and the waterfront promenade are buzzing while friends gather in lantern-lit riverside tea houses in Zhujiajiao ancient town. Moon cakes, which are round to symbolise the reunion of the family and come in different flavours, are gifted to family and friends.

Image: Getty

The Chinese Moon Festival runs from September 15 to 17 with events across Shanghai and the country

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Featured 28 Girl on fire Image: Getty

The queen of R&B Alicia Keys puts her best face forward

34 Music gets the best of ME

Why is it easier for bands to make it big in the Middle East?

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Ruby Warrington / The Sunday Times / The Interview People. Images: Zoltan Tombor Photography

featured: alicia keys

giRl on fiRe Alicia Keys is no longer prepared to play the red carpet game – and that includes the outspoken queen of R&B ditching the heavy make-up

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‘‘I

t’s so distracting, all this fake perfection stuff.” So says Alicia Keys, the woman responsible for the hits Fallin’ in 2001, Empire State of Mind in 2009 and 35 million album sales worldwide, as well as the owner of the voice chosen to sing at the American president Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. We are in a soundproofed room at her recording studio in Chelsea, Manhattan, listening to her new summer EP and Keys, 35, is indeed the total opposite of “fake perfection”. Her face is devoid of make-up, her hair is scraped back into a cloud of black curls at her neck and she is dressed in trainers, jeans and a vintage Marvin Gaye tee shirt.

“So much of what we see and consume is so carefully constructed and polished and I think people are over it. We want the truth – from TV, from government, from wherever.” Keys has had a lightbulb moment recently and her new, no-make-up look is part of it. She has stopped wearing it in promotional shoots and on stage (although as one Twitter user pointed out, ‘If I looked like @aliciakeys, I wouldn’t wear make-up either’).

She now wants to encourage other women to embrace the “empowering” side of a bare face, at a time when the Kardashians and social media are fuelling a boom in make-up sales. To this end, she has harnessed the hashtag #Nomakeup, which is already a hit with 12m posts. It comes from a “desire to peel back the layers”. Because, lately, she has found herself asking some big questions: “Like, who am I? And what’s really happening inside me? I want to tackle it, talk about it, so I can move past it.”

In May she penned an essay for Lenny Letter, the actress Lena Dunham’s online newsletter, titled Time to Uncover, writing how in the past “every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on make-up. What if someone wanted a picture? All of it, one way or another, based on what other people thought of me”.

But this time she is doing things differently, inspired, she says, by writing a list of all the things that bothered her as she sat down to work on her new album. “One was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny or sexy or desirable or perfect,” she wrote. “I was tired of the constant judgment of women.”

It unleashed a sentiment expressed in the song When a Girl Can’t Be Herself, in which she sings: “What if I don’t want to put on all that make-up/ Who says I must conceal what I’m made of?” In her essay she concludes: “I don’t

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featured: alicia keys

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the changing faces of alicia Keys

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2010

2012

Images: Getty

2009

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want to cover up any more. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth.

Nothing.”

Keys’ new single In Common comes on, a sun-drenched club classic. She swings around from her laptop to tell me how the song is about “breaking out of the boxes we get put in, because it is all garbage, you know? We share so much in common and at the same time we are all so complex. We should be free to just be who we are.”

Keys’ enthusiasm for the project she calls “my next baby” is infectious. Eyes closed, her whole body is getting involved in a full-on chair-dance until she is interrupted by her phone ringing. It is her five-year-old son Egypt, calling on Facetime to say goodnight. (She chose the name after sailing down the Nile.) Her outfit today comes complete with a floor-length khaki parachute jacket embroidered with the words “Egypt’s mom” in looping gold.

“My husband got me this for Valentine’s Day. He’s so dope!” she says of her other half, the music producer Kasseem Dean (aka Swizz Beatz), adding that he also got her one for their younger son, 18-month-old Genesis Ali (named in respect of her husband’s Islamic faith).

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Born and raised in gritty Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, only a few blocks from where she has her studio, Keys was two years old when her parents split, which meant “having to grow up really quick, really young. Having to raise myself in a lot of ways”. Her mother, a paralegal of Italian, Scottish and Irish descent, spotted her daughter’s talent early and she was playing classical piano from the age of seven. Enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at 12, she specialised in the choir and began writing songs at 14. Her first studio album Songs in A Minor and its big hit Fallin’ came six years later, earning five Grammys and going on to sell 12m copies worldwide.

It is the kind of success story that makes it easy to forget that underneath there is a woman with all the usual human insecurities. “I don’t think I’m as confident and secure as the picture I paint. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I am a lot less together than I look.”

This is something she believes a lot of women, in particular, experience. “We always want to seem like we have it figured out. It is only recently that I am more willing to access the pain inside me, the vulnerability – those places of weakness where I felt forced to always be strong. It really takes a lot.”

featured: alicia keys

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In part, she credits this shift to her kundalini yoga practice, a style of yoga that includes meditation and chanting, which she has started doing daily.

“The main phrase you chant is ‘sat nam’, which means ‘I am truth’. I can’t remind myself of that enough and it has been an important part of me not looking to other people for acceptance – a big issue I had for a long time.”

Becoming a mother has also been instrumental in her transcending the endless and futile quest for perfection. “I just do not have the bandwidth – there is no time to pretend any more. Being responsible for this little person’s life forces you to cut to the chase.”

For now, the family live just across the Hudson River in New Jersey in a 32-room estate previously owned by Eddie Murphy, which went on the market for $15m at the end of last summer (their holiday home in Phoenix, Arizona, also went up for sale in March). Where they will settle next is unclear but as she gears back up into promo mode, Keys is actively staking out time with her tribe. “As I plan the week, the month, whatever, I really work on planning the time we will have together. It is an active thought. And that includes time where it is us and the kids and time where it is just me and my husband.”

2007

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She is clearly enamoured with her boys and describes herself as a “playful” parent. “I’m on the floor with the trucks and the cars and I’m being a monster and a dinosaur. I love it. Being able to get lost in their imagination is empowering for me, too.” At the same time, she is committed to drilling a strong work ethic into them. “They need to learn that things are not just going to happen. I do not care who you are. You have to put in the work, put in the time.”

As for those romantic date nights: “My favourite is when we book into this little boutique hotel 20 minutes from our house. We get a tiny room, then we just cuddle up and order room service as if we are hiding from the whole wide world. It’s the best,” she says, laughing. “Being from New York has given me all my grit and my stink and my funk and it has made me a sexy tomboy.

That is who I am and I love it.”

Even in the dim studio lights, she certainly does emit a radiance that cannot be solely down to the “40 days of greens” cleanse she has just come off. (“As much of whatever you want, so long as it is green – it was more like a spiritual discipline than anything,” she says.) Nor does getting older leave her feeling daunted: “If this is how it is going to feel as I continue to grow, I am into it.”

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Image this page: Hype magazine. All other pages courtesy of The Other Side

Hollaphonic

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culture

Music gETs ThE bEsT of ME The music scene in the Middle East is thriving, thanks to upcoming talent and collaborations with record labels and studios. Gerry Winter reports on how the ME is becoming a hotbed of new discoveries

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Physical Graffiti

A

s the band Hollaphonic took to the stage to open the Dubai World Cup live concert in front of 45,000 people, they saw, out the corner of their eyes, Seal at the side of the stage. It was their first ever gig and the legendary English singer was dancing away to their music.

“We had to pinch ourselves,” remembers Greg Stainer, one half of the electronic dance duo. “Afterwards he came up and went, ‘Hey guys, you were amazing’. And we were like, ‘Umm, thanks…so are you’.’”

It was just one surreal moment from a surreal four years for the band – made up of producer and DJ Stainer, 40, and 33-year-old former garage MC Oliver Wood – who both arrived in Dubai from the UK separately more than a decade ago. Back then, Stainer was a music programmer while Wood, who had worked for EMI Records in London, had moved into publishing. But after a chance meeting at a gig in 2012, the pair – who were regulars at house nights at Pasha and Zero Gravity – decided to collaborate.

“Greg and I were in the studio 24 hours after meeting,” says Wood. “We were both bending the ear of a mutual friend about wanting a music partner. The result was I Don’t Want It To End and it went to number one on iTunes in the UAE just a few months later.”

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The pair have not looked back since. Hollaphonic was quickly snapped up by Universal Music Group and became the first electronic act to be signed to a major label in the Middle East. The band has released six singles, opened for the likes of Coldplay, David Guetta and Armin van Buuren at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and played to more than 250,000 people, as well as being listened to more than one million times on Spotify. Their audience with Seal took place at the 2013 Dubai World Cup just a few months after they formed and their debut album Personal Space – recorded in Stainer’s spare room before 7pm so his daughter could go to sleep - topped the iTunes chart in Dubai.

And their success appears to be growing all the time. Today they are chatting in the lobby of the Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in Belgravia, central London, where they have been guests of Jumeirah as part of the hotel chain's commitment to support arts in the cities in which their hotels are located. The duo are back in the British capital for their Homecoming Project, a collaboration with the Jumeirah Group, Emirates airline and Red Bull, which will see them playing at a number of gigs and producing new material in the Red Bull Studios in London. The collaboration will see them releasing a series of three-minute webisodes and a new music video this month.

“The last time I recorded in London was in my mum’s spare bedroom and now we are in one of the best studios in the city,” says Stainer, shaking his head in disbelief.

culture Chronicles of Khan

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Hollophonic’s story of almost overnight success in the UAE after years of struggling to make it elsewhere is astonishing but it seems in Dubai, such musical achievements are on the rise.

“It is a modern-day land of opportunity – in all industries I guess – but in the music industry there is nothing like it anywhere in the world,” says Stainer.

“We knew we had made a cool track and wanted a record label to hear it but in London that would have been virtually impossible. In Dubai we were actually able to get a meeting with the head of EMI Records, which was later taken over by the Universal, just because it is such a close-knit scene.

He was into the music we played him and signed us almost straightaway. It has been incredible.”

The independent music scene in the UAE and the Middle East – an almost non-existent entity not long ago – has been booming over the past five years.

Musicians and bands who have developed in the country range from smaller but hugely respected indie outfits, such as alternative folk group Physical Graffiti, rock band Kicksound and Syrian hip-hop artists Moh Flow, through to internationally acclaimed acts like Abri, a funk group who were nominated for best new act at the MTV Europe music awards in 2008.

“The music scene is on a massive high,” says Hamdan Al Abri, 35, the Emirati frontman of his namesake band. “I remember when I first started the band, there were just a handful of others around releasing and performing original music but now there are so many you cannot keep up.

It is great to see. We still have a long way to go to having a proper established music scene but it is slowly getting there and it is exciting to see that and be a part of it.”

Several factors perhaps giving a boost to this thriving scene include an expanding population and the support of the government, as well as private sponsors like Jumeirah and Red Bull. Policies such as the Dubai Strategic Plan 2021, which aims to establish the city as a “vibrant, global Arabian metropolis that shapes culture and arts in the region and the world” have boosted music-makers by ensuring funding is available. The evolution has also been helped by an ever-increasing number of independent platforms, such as host venues and nights where local artists and bands can perform while music-lovers congregate to talk, dance and make like-minded friends.

This in turn has led to new collaborations and more groups forming.

One such platform has been provided by Freshly Ground Sounds, an independent collective which hosts live events featuring local talent at different

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The Wanton Bishops

venues such as Tribeca in JBR and A4 Space in Alserkal Avenue. Its founder Izzy Abidi thinks it is the city’s cultural diversity and grassroots community which have helped create a burgeoning scene.

“Such a melting pot of nationalities naturally brings together various musical influences that make for interesting original music,” says the 30-year-old lawyer from the Greens, Dubai.

“I love the fact that at Freshly, we can have an Iraqi singer-songwriter who plays alongside a Welsh bassist, an English drummer, a Pakistani sitar player, an Indian keyboardist, a Palestinian hip-hop artist, an American double bass player, a Filipino mixing on his Macbook and an Armenian ukulele player.

How many cities exist where that line-up is totally normal?”

Other nights are similarly eclectic. The Other Side, a monthly live music event which hosts some of the most promising musicians from the Middle East, bringing talented indie groups from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the UAE. “We are introducing people to cool sounds from the region that a lot of peo-

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ple did not know existed,” says co-founder Dania Ismail, 36, originally from Syria. “People tend to look outside the region for cool music when there is stuff happening right next door. I hope there will be a further push to support independent musicians from the Middle East because there is some incredible talent here that really deserves to be heard and promoted.”

Among that regional talent are bands such as Beirut’s bluesy rock outfit The Wanton Bishops, Cairo’s singer-songwriter Bosaina and Chronicles of Khan, an indie band which played at the Middle East Film and Comic Con in Dubai in 2014. Its lead singer Faraz Khan, 30, has his own views on the city’s growing scene. As more attention is paid to the scene, he says, a virtuous circle is created. More interest equals more bands and more bands equals more interest.

“Some of the bands in the UAE sound and perform as good as any wellknown international artist,” he says. “Dubai is known as the land of opportunity in the Middle East and with an influx of people from all over the world, upcoming artists get to promote their music to people from all walks of life. You never know whom you [might] reach out to and how they play

culture

‘‘

We are introducing people to cool sounds from the region that a lot of people did not know existed. People tend to look outside the region for cool music when there is stuff happening right next door. There is some incredible talent here that really deserves to be heard and promoted

Bosaina

‘‘

a role in your music.” Indeed, major corporations are now starting to see the potential of backing bands.

and Sony signing acts and then you have independent labels doing stuff so from an industry level, as well as nightlife, there is a movement.”

The drinks giant Red Bull has invested in supporting local talent through workshops and collaborations. Earlier this year, it hosted 21 artists from around the GCC, Levant and India for a four-day collaborative session in Dubai. Like-minded individuals were given the unique opportunity to create and develop new music ideas together.

It is clear the homegrown music scene in the Middle East is gathering momentum and there has never been a better time for musicians from the region to gain exposure, with Dubai’s buzzing multicultural characteristics contributing to that evolution.

“Our aim,” says spokesman Mounir Baalbaki, “is to provide a platform for the scene to develop and grow so the region’s artists have the best opportunity to achieve their vision of success.”

Back in London, Hollaphonic’s members are excited about their upcoming gigs, which will include a return to Dubai to close the Fiesta de los Muertos dance festival in the Autism Rocks arena on October 28. “We cannot wait,” says Wood. “We hope there will be more bands from Dubai able to do this in the future. Why not? You have obviously got bigger labels like Universal

Abidi at Freshly Ground Sounds agrees: “It is the family nature of the scene here. Someone once compared the past few years in Dubai with the 1920s New York art scene and in some small ways, you can draw analogies. All the art gallery owners, the music platform pioneers, the local venue owners and start-up entrepreneurs – everyone knows each other. The creative scene in Dubai is relatively tiny but super-enthusiastic so it makes it easy and quick to collaborate.”

You can watch Hollaphonic's web releases documenting their recording sessions in London and see their new music video this month on redbull.com/homecoming

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LIFESTYLE 42 Virtual luxury

Take a peek inside a more luxurious life without ever leaving home

48 Picture this

With so many foodies on Instagram, when should you put the camera away?

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Image: Getty

technology

virtuAL Luxury

The award-winning Jumeirah Inside platform gives visitors a peek inside some of its most luxurious properties – all without ever leaving home. Alex Lane reports from behind his headset

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y helicopter gently swirls around the magnificent sail shape of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah before I disembark on the rooftop helipad in front of the hotel’s waiting staff.

Seconds later, I am relaxing on my rotating bed in the royal suite before taking in the 180-metre-high atrium and cascading fountain from the palatial lobby. Then I soak up views of glittering Dubai from the infinity pool of the Talise Spa, 150m up, before drinks at 200m in the Skyview Bar, where master mixologist Steve tantalises my tastebuds before I sit down to a meal flanked by the Gulf’s highest-flying aquarium.

Tomorrow I’ll have a look around the Wild Wadi waterpark and plan my return flight on an Etihad Airbus A380. I just can’t decide whether to go for a business class seat or follow my luxury stay with an airborne threeroom suite in The Residence.

Did I mention that my fellow passenger is Hollywood A-lister Nicole Kidman and I haven’t left the comfort of my London apartment? That’s because my decadent trip was courtesy of the latest entertainment technology to mature into a consumer phenomenon: virtual reality, or VR. Jumeirah Group has created virtual tours of its hotels around the world, including the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, encompassing video, 3D sound and interactive hostpots with exclusive content. Meanwhile Etihad has enlisted Kidman and a host of Hollywood talent to showcase its latest jet. It is fair to say the travel and tourism industry is enthusiastically embracing VR to reach customers in new ways.

Virtual reality comes of age Virtual reality is a 360-degree video environment in which viewers can move around as though they are there, interacting with characters and objects they find. It was popularised in the early Nineties by films like The Lawnmower Man but in the past few years the technology has caught up with imagination to make VR experiences that look real and respond in real time. What had been a niche hook for the video games industry became mainstream in 2014 when Facebook paid $2 million for the Kickstarter-funded VR headset maker Oculus. Announcements soon followed from global brands, including Google, Samsung, Sony Playstation and HTC. Last year Jumeirah Group embraced VR in a hotel industry first and attracted 500,000 page views on the day the platform launched (it then notched up 12.6 million views on YouTube in four months).

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When most of us think of VR, we think of large headsets like the $600 Oculus Rift or the forthcoming PlayStation VR. These still deliver the most realistic experiences and Oculus requires a powerful PC to run, although the PlayStation VR will run from an upgraded version of the PS4 games console.

Today though, most people carry a powerful computer and your smartphone or tablet can become a window into a virtual world, revealing its secrets as you move it around and tap your screen to interact. Even if you only have a desktop monitor, you can use your mouse to move around and click on objects in the way we have become used to doing in Google’s Street View.

The smartphone option means almost everyone has a potential VR viewer in their pocket and Google Cardboard has been a game-changer for the marketing industry because of its low cost and flatpack production. Etihad and tour operator Thomas Cook have given away thousands of these flatpacked headsets with newspapers and mail-out promotions. There are tougher and more stylish plastic versions for sale but they are all affordable.

Google Cardboard is basic, though, with a single button, which you can use to interact with the virtual world. It does not work with all phones and is best with a powerful premium phone with a large, highly-detailed screen.

The Samsung Gear VR (using Oculus technology) and HTC Vive are somewhere between Google Cardboard and a dedicated headset. They only work with specific phones from the manufacturers so the bar for quality is set much higher and they offer better interaction, such as a trackpad and several buttons.

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Adventure at home Jumeirah and Etihad are not alone in using VR to transport potential guests to their most luxurious destinations. Tour operator Thomas Cook placed Samsung VR headsets in 10 stores in the UK, Germany and Belgium alongside its mailshot of Google Cardboard kits, allowing viewers to experience VR on YouTube, including a helicopter ride across New York.

Visitors to the North Face store in Seoul last year were given an Arctic dogsled ride, courtesy of Oculus Rift, with a twist: a lucky few were hooked up to a real husky pack while they watched the VR film and as they took off the headset they burst out of the booth for a wild ride around the mall, where they could grab samples of the McMurdo jacket range as they flew around. The US audience got a more gentle experience in a 360-degree film, which put them alongside athletes preparing to hike in Yosemite National Park, Moab in Utah and Nepal. The film was available for download and taken on a tour of stores in the US and London as well as being sent to 75,000 subscribers of Outside sports magazine with a Google Cardboard headset.

“It is impossible to put the headset on and not smile. I think this is a testament to how real the experience is and how well it connects with our inner need to adventure and explore,” says Tim Kemple, director of Camp 4 Collective, a group of athletes and filmmakers who worked on the project.

Head to the NASA website and you can even go to the International Space Station and Mars in VR - and if you think that’s beyond tourism, you haven’t

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seen the ambitions of aerospace giants like Airbus to open up new frontiers for recreational travel in the next decade.

Virtual reality, real gravity The more demanding virtual experiences come with challenges for its developers and users, not least the difficulty of keeping your balance when the world is moving but you are standing still. The airline Monarch produced an in-store VR skiing game to promote the winter sports season and paired the Oculus Rift headset with a Nintendo Wii Fit balance board and ski poles to make sure players did not fall over.

Promotional campaigns using virtual reality are far from cheap, either.

Produced over six months, the A380 used for Etihad’s Reimagine had to become a temporary film set, with lockers and partitions removed to accommodate the cameras and lighting - although such costs can be worthwhile if your brand prides itself on being at the cutting edge.

Shane O’Hare, Etihad Airways’ senior vice president of marketing, says: “This immersive VR film is a massive step-change in the way we present the brand and product to the consumer using highly innovative new mediums.”

The award-winning Jumeirah Inside was a major project for both, Jumeirah Group and Google, which had to add interactive content in five languages to the painstakingly captured photos and scripted video

links, ensuring it would work across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Charlie Taylor, Jumeirah’s group director of brand communications, says: “Jumeirah Inside is one of the most exciting digital developments for Jumeirah Group.

Just as we aim to exceed our guests’ expectations whenever they visit our luxury hotels around the world, so is our aim to give an unforgettably rich, immersive online experience in advance of their arrival.”

Ivan Jakovljevic, Google’s head of travel and finance for the Middle East and North Africa, adds: “We worked very closely with the Jumeirah team to unleash the creative potential of their brand, enabled by the latest advances in digital technology to tell the best possible story from the consumer point of view at every step of an immersive travel journey. Jumeirah Group has set a high standard for the hospitality industry as a brand which consistently explores what is possible through the adoption of digital. It is redefining the way people experience travel and we are proud to be a part of it.”

It is always expensive to be an innovator but lower-cost 360-degree cameras will make it easier for travellers to share their experiences. Bloggers like 360Backpacking.com are already blazing a trail for creating immersive records of your travels.

Friends, family and colleagues already expect us to share the highlights in real time via smartphones and social media. It won’t be long before we are all uploading our own virtual reality snapshots to complement the slick presentations from the likes of Jumeirah and Etihad. insidejumeirah.com/en/hotelsresorts/jumeirah-inside/

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pic tu re th is

Image: Getty

Do y on ou lo ve kno a ni w s ght to p h dis hes omeo out fo otog r rep on s ne w r din aph yo n o h ort s o cial m o lov er? O ur fo es na e to r do y od mo dia? po ou L de au st rn r p a r ph eno Free etty m me no an n

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food

Get snap-happy with some of Jumeirah’s most Instagrammable dishes Dim sum selection at Zheng He’s, Jumeirah Mina A’Salam, Dubai

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hat was it that proved so irresistible? The pink linen napkins? The little soup crock with steam escaping its lid? The monogrammed plates with claret edges?

Whatever it was that had caught his eye, the man at the table next to me in London’s Brasserie Zedel was very excited. So excited that at the arrival of his soupe a l’oignon, he had left his seat, clambered up on the banquette and half-standing, half-crouching, held his iPhone out below him, the better to get a bird’s eye view of the gruyere crouton sailing on its onion sea. There he stayed for several minutes as the soup cooled, bobbing up and down to get his photograph, like a pied wagtail over a particularly juicy worm.

What was most striking about this extraordinary display was that apart from I and my gawping lunch companion, no one batted an eyelid. Not his girlfriend, calmly starting on her celeri remoulade. Nor the waiters, darting between tables with carafes of water and wine. They had seen it all before.

The pied wagtail photographer was an extreme example of a modern phenomenon: the restaurant-goer who Instagrams first and eats later. This has

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set a new challenge to chefs. Their dishes must not only taste delicious – but be sumptuously photogenic.

We are fascinated by what others have had for breakfast, lunch, dinner – even by their midnight avocado-on-toast snacks. Food photographers can inspire devoted followings. Michael Zee, the cameraman behind the Instagram account @symmetrybreakfast, takes a daily photograph of the mirror-image meals he and his partner eat and shares them with 600,000 followers. His breakfasts put those of us who have lumpy porridge each morning to shame.

Zee has something new every day, from bread and butter puddings to stillwarm madeleines from a Parisian bakery and croques madames with cornichons and watercress.

Anissa Helou, the Syrian-Lebanese chef and food historian posting on @anissahelou, shares photographs of her travels in Tunisia, Indonesia and Sicily with 10,700 followers, who swoon over sea urchin spaghetti, crostino con lardo and cream-and-chocolate-piped cannoli. She is a fearless eater, even trying camel hump for the first time on a trip to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. “I am known for eating weird stuff,” she says, “so I have no com-

food

Left to right: Cocktail bubbles, Zheng He's, Mina A'Salam, Catalan seafood stew from Al Hambra, Jumeirah Al Qasr, Dubai; mahashi mushakala, Li Beirut, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi

punction about posting pictures like the bat I ate in Indonesia recently, despite the photo not being so pretty.” For the more fainthearted, however, there are plenty of pictures of jasmine sorbet and white mulberries in Trapani, cherry jam in California and pistachio dragees – sugared almonds – in Lebanon.

Before she started writing about food, Helou worked in the art world.

“Aesthetics have always been very important to me,” she says, “even too important. I really don’t like being presented with unappealing-looking food, however good it is and I hate when someone messes up a plate by scrambling what is on it or making smudges. That was true long before I started using Instagram.”

rots with their leaves still on and turn them into a work of art. Rowe proves that food need not be fussy or overstyled to be photo-worthy.

Demian Fuentes, the operations manager of Jumeirah’s new Burj Al Arab Terrace in Dubai, says Twitter and Instagram have “changed the way we eat, interact and socialise across the world. Nowadays we are not just interacting with the person sitting in our restaurant but rather with hundreds and even thousands of people. That means we have to be even more detailed and attentive to the taste and presentation of the dishes.”

Felicity Spector, a keen food photographer and chronicler of London’s cakes and pastries on Twitter and Instagram (@felicityspector), says her photographs are about celebration. “If you go somewhere where the food is really lovely, you want to share it and hope others will go there for themselves.”

If a dish looks “boring and unappealing”, he continues, it won’t just be seen by that night’s diners but by hundreds of others. His chefs are always looking for new ingredients, new plates and ever more inventive ways of presenting food to catch and delight the eye. At the terrace’s Scape restaurant, the most photographed dish is the scallop tiradito with its vivid green leche de tigre – or Peruvian lime marinade – sauce.

She admires the dazzling creativity of chefs such as Oliver Rowe (@oliver_rowe__london), who can take something as simple as new season car-

Other social media star dishes at the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (@burjalarab) are the breakfast fruit skewers – blackberries, strawberries and kumquats – dipped

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Clockwise from left: Thai green curry, The Noodle House, Jumeirah Emirates Towers; green tea cheesecake; Jumeirah Dhevanafushi; dolma at Bilgah Beach Hotel, Baku. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: steak at The Hide, Jumeirah Al Qasr; lobster salad at Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa, Mallorca; chocolate orange confit, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers

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Isn’t there a danger, with all this framing and clicking and cropping and filtering and fiddling with the contrast and #-ing and @-ing, that by the time you have taken the perfect photo and captioned it, your lunch, so devotedly prepared by the chef, has gone cold?

in chocolate fondue and the piles of loukoumades, or sweet Arabic pastries, drizzled with honey and speckled with sesame and nigella seeds. These are much Instagrammed and ‘liked’ many thousands of time over. Spector says dessert photographs are among the most popular on her feed. Everyone is inclined to like a plate piled high with brownies.

Rika Yusmita, the manager of Zheng He’s Chinese restaurant in the Jumeirah Mina A’Salam hotel in Dubai, has observed a new trend: guests who don’t wait for a menu but show waiters their smartphone and say: “I’ll have one of those”. Often they won’t even know what it is but are “crazy” about social media and eager to try the dishes they have seen on Instagram. The chefs whet guests’ appetites by posting pictures on the restaurant’s feed (@zhenghesdubai) as they experiment in the kitchen.

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Even plating has become an art. What good is a dull cream canvas when you are painting a masterpiece in spun sugar and whipped cream? At the Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel and Spa in Mallorca, the kitchens now have as many as seven types of plate, each for different dishes. Everything from colour, material, size and shape is considered, says Rodrigo Ofner, the hotel’s director of food and beverages.

The spectacle of serving can be just as important as the dish itself.

Order the Beijing duck in Zheng He’s and it comes to the table in ceremonial procession – the duck, then the chef to carve it, then the condiments, then the pancakes, each with a dedicated waiter – heralded by clapping and the ringing of gongs: an excuse not just for an Instagram photo but a mini video.

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Isn’t there a danger, with all this framing and clicking and cropping and filtering and fiddling with the contrast and #-ing and @-ing, that by the time you have taken the perfect photo and captioned it, your lunch, so devotedly prepared by the chef, has gone cold? Yusmita says while salads and puddings don’t suffer from waiting a few minutes on the table, the baskets of dim sum for which the restaurant is famous really are best eaten piping hot.

Spector agrees: “I really hate letting food get cold. You are there to have a meal, not a photoshoot.” She tends to take the photograph without undue “faffing”, eat while the dish is still hot and post pictures between courses.

When she posts something particularly tempting from a restaurant menu, followers will often tag their friends in the comments and say: “We must go there!” It is a way of bringing people together over cinnamon buns and salted custard doughnuts, an irresistible photo inspiring a weekend brunch date.

Not all chefs are willing to indulge photographers. Michael O’Hare, the idiosyncratic British chef behind the Michelin-starred restaurant The Man

Behind the Curtain in the UK, gave a robust interview to The Times earlier this year in which he complained: “Put your phone away! You should be eating and drinking and making merry. Enjoy yourself.”

Neither Fuentes nor Yusmita have yet intervened to stop a guest taking photographs. Generally, their diners are more considerate than my distracting neighbour at Brasserie Zedel. Yusmita says she would only stop a guest if they turned up with a large, obtrusive, professional camera but not if it is a discreet digital camera or smartphone.

Certainly I am guilty of the odd awed photograph of dramatic or unusual dishes: a pea granita, a perfect pair of salted and grilled kippers, a crystalline elderflower jelly. But the childhood ‘no toys at the table’ rule still rings in my head and I take my photographs furtively before putting my iPhone away and pressing on with the much more important business of eating. I do wonder when my pied wagtail neighbour last had a truly hot meal.

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CONNECT WITH DUBAI

Located in the heart of Dubai and overlooking the Dubai Creek, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel brings together a fusion of contemporary design and distinct architectural features. The hotel offers an authentic experience through its specially commissioned Middle Eastern contemporary art collection, firmly connecting the hotel to the region’s vibrant art and cultural heritage.

Conveniently located minutes away from Dubai International Airport Flexible 24-hour stay check-in / check-out Complimentary in-room mini bar Unlimited complimentary access and transport to Wild Wadi Waterpark Complimentary private beach access at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray (once during stay) Complimentary shuttle service to Dubai Mall

For bookings or enquiries, please call +971 4 230 8555 or visit jumeirah.com/creekside

TRAVEL 56 Art that moves

The wheels are in motion for a public art movement in Dubai

60 A race back in time

The Goodwood Revival is a glorious return to motor racing’s golden era

Image: Getty

66 Do you hear the people sing?

Will Dubai Opera be on a par with Europe’s grand institutions?

78 Featured spaces

Jumeirah’s libraries are the perfect retreat for booklovers

art that moves Plans are afoot to turn Dubai into an open-air gallery – and the wheels are already in motion for Jumeirah's take on public art

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ost people can recall art that has moved them in some way – but this new fleet of golf buggies does that quite literally. Daubed in bright colours, they are a cheery sight on the horizon as they tootle between three Dubai resorts and often bring a smile to guests’ faces.

To the Middle Eastern artists who designed them, they represent much more than simply a brighter mode of transport. The fleet is both a showcase of their work and part of a growing movement to create public art in the city.

Sheikha bin Dhaher, one of four female Emirati artists involved in the project, says: “If you take them all together, what they do is form this stunning, mobile open-air gallery and that is a wonderful thing.”

The fleet of 101 six-seater electric rides – partly powered by wind turbines and designed to whisk guests between the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, the Madinat Jumeirah resort and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel – are all covered with the artwork of a total of five UAE-based artists. Images synonymous with the Emirates, from jewellery, henna, fish and pearls to Arabic coffee, camels, traditional dress and decorative calligraphy, all feature in a celebration of the country’s art, heritage and culture. The Jumeirah Group commissioned the fleet after the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, set out his vision for Dubai to become a global centre of culture by 2020.

Bin Dhaher, 32, says of the art scene in the UAE: “I do not think you could say it is booming because we are still such a young country - but it is blooming. It is growing every day. People’s skills are developing and new artists are

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emerging. Projects like this are invaluable because it takes art to people who might not necessarily go to a gallery. Maybe it inspires them – and because these are famous hotels with visitors from around the world, it shows to an international audience what talent is thriving here.”

The other chosen artists include Eman Al Raesi, Hessa Abdulla Al Awadhi, Sheikha Wafa bint Hasher Al Maktoum and Saudi-Iraqi Majid Alyousef, a UAE-based calligraphy artist. They were chosen in a collaboration with Dubai Culture and Brand Dubai and selected because they had impressed with their previous work with government authorities, from participating in festivals to helping decorate tourist buses.

Each had their own inspiration. Al Awadhi’s minimalist design is a “celebration of female Emirati culture” and features traditional henna art and symbols representing jewellery, coffee and family. “I wanted to keep it very simple,” says the 30-year-old graphic designer. “That reflects traditional ways of life here but also makes it a celebration of beauty because that appreciation is part of our culture too. What I think is special about this project is that it takes our art to people. Of course, I like to exhibit my work in galleries but not everyone will go to a gallery. This is art that engages with people as they go about their life.”

Al Raesi’s work is a different beast entirely, drawing on cubism, surrealism and European modernist influences. The 32-year-old’s design includes sev-

art

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What I think is special about this project is that it takes our art to people. Not everyone will go to a gallery. This is art that engages with people as they go about their life

eral burqa-wearing women - but these are burqa-wearing women as Picasso might have painted them: straight-lined, symbolic and vibrantly colourful.

“I think perhaps unconsciously, I am trying to imitate the strength of both the region’s sun and of Emirati women with my palette of colours,” says the full-time artist.

Margaret Paul, the general manager of Madinat Jumeirah, says: “We have worked with some extremely talented artists to deliver concepts inspired by the traditions of the UAE and Dubai. The result is a unique experience that brings a combination of modern artwork and the heritage of the country to our guests.”

Bin Dhaher also sees the environment as her muse, from the UAE’s coastal waters to its varied marine life. Her design includes a depiction of a range of regional fish species from hammour to safi and goby. “For this region, the sea has always been of such importance,” says the graphic designer. “Our culture and way of life have been informed by it for centuries, from pearl diving to fishermen. I wanted to acknowledge that. Madinat Jumeirah has two kilometres of beachfront so this seemed appropriate.”

Dubai Culture, which set up the digital portal Creatopia to encourage creative individuals, is hoping the project will now inspire other local artists.

The design of Sheikha Wafa bint Hasher Al Maktoum, a member of the Dubai royal family and a cousin of Sheikh Mohammed, was also inspired by living creatures. The graceful silhouettes of camels feature in her blue, silver and white patterned design.

Alyousef, meanwhile, used the three-fingered salute of Dubai’s ruler for inspiration for his decorative calligraphy. “The salute symbolises win, victory and love, a framework for Dubai’s ambitious values,” says the 42-year-old artist.

“I have lived here for 14 years now. It is my home, a wonderful city and I wanted to communicate how I felt about the place.”

“These unique visual designs by the UAE’s creative community bring art to the attention of both residents and visitors in an innovative way by using public objects as a canvas,” says Moza Suwaidan, director of projects and events with the authority. “We are confident this will positively influence people’s perceptions of the city and shine a spotlight on the emirate’s flourishing arts scene.”

Shaima Al Suwaidi, an innovation executive for Brand Dubai, adds the collaboration was part of an initiative to create a series of public art projects. “As part of realising the vision to transform the city into an openair art museum, Brand Dubai is keen to work with both public and private sector organisations as well as artists on projects that can enhance the cultural and artistic ambience of the city and bring out its unique character,” she says.

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travel

a Race back in Time The Goodwood Revival is a glorious return to the golden era of motor racing. Danae Mercer reports from the trackside

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very September for one long weekend, an extraordinary sight greets visitors to a former wartime airfield in the UK. Men don cravats, trilbys, tweeds and World War II uniforms. Women are demure in pencil skirts, victory suits and veiled hats. There are flourishes of waxed moustaches here and cherry-red lips there as, over the three days of the Goodwood Revival, motoring enthusiasts and history lovers alike suspend reality to step back in time in what has been dubbed “one of the world’s biggest fancy dress parties”.

The highlight of the racing calendar celebrates the halcyon days of the postwar 1940s, the optimistic 1950s and liberal 1960s. Aside from the outfits, it does so through one main medium: cars. From American V8s to Ford GT40s, Austin Sevens to Maserati Mexicos, vintage cars are at the heart of the Goodwood Revival, echoing the days when they were considered stateof-the-art and first raced around the circuit in Chichester, west Sussex.

Sometimes they crash and in an instant, history is lost. But mostly the cars race around the loop of the Goodwood circuit in the Sussex Downs. Originally opened in 1948 on the grounds of the perimeter track for a former airfield, the circuit hosted Britain’s first post-war motor race in a permanent venue. It received a rapturous response from a war-weary public long deprived of entertainment. About 85 drivers and more than 15,000 spectators turned up that first day, crowding on oil cans for better views across the wire sheep fencing.

Before it shut down nearly 20 years later in July 1966, the 3.8 kilometre circuit had played host to many big names from the world of sports and saloon car racing, including Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark and Innes Ireland. It had also seen British speed record champion Donald Campbell take his Bluebird CN7 on its first public outing in 1960. Goodwood finally closed because its owners did not want to add chicanes to slow down drivers. There was tragedy too when McLaren founder Bruce McLaren died in 1970 while testing his M8D, which spun out of control on the track.

And so it lay dormant until 1998 when Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Earl of March and Kinrara and the owner of the Goodwood estate, decided to give the track a kickstart. In 1993, he founded the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a hill climb using historic motor racing vehicles. The Goodwood Revival fol-

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lowed in 1998 and now draws crowds of up to 148,000. “The track was just sitting there,” he said simply of his brainwave at the time. He was 11 years old when the track closed and says now: “The Revival is always a very special event for me as it celebrates the beginning of motor racing at Goodwood and brings back many happy childhood memories.”

“It is like stepping back in time,” says Laura Gilbert-Burke, a spokeswoman for the Goodwood Group. “You are surrounded by visitors in period costumes in a Word War II airfield that has barely changed over the years. The cars racing on the track, the set dressing, the music and dancing are all completely authentic. It is a full sensory experience, from the roar of the track to the airplanes overhead. You can watch thrilling vintage car races, dance the lindy hop, shop for vintage fashion and get up close to some legendary drivers.”

The crowd go all out to impress with bespoke hats and carefully crafted vintage mechanic costumes. A competition hosted by Goodwood for the bestdressed encourages a competitive spirit. “We have a strong core of visitors who come to see the cars and drivers and watch all the action on the track but we also have families who love to watch the Settringham Cup, where children race vintage pedal cars on the track and friends who love dressing up,” says Gilbert-Burke.

For those who are more focused on the racing and fortunate enough to have access to a vintage luxury car, driving at the meeting can be half the adventure.

Vehicle models can take any form raced at Goodwood up until 1966, including small 500cc Formula Junior cars, motorcycles, Formula One cars, sports cars, Jaguar E-type lightweights and Chevrolet Corvette Stingrays. “You see the most incredible vintage cars here,” says Gilbert-Burke. It is even possible to buy one in an auction held by Bonhams.

“This is how motor racing used to be,” gushed John Simister in The Independent after hitching a ride in a 1964 Mercedes-Benz 300SE saloon. “The grass, the bank, the chicane walls get perilously close but we stay on the track. Every curve is a balancing act of skilful slides and corrections.”

Even car manufacturers and luxury brand sponsors are banned from stepping outside the timeline of the historic event. Staff from Veuve Clicquot were once refused entry to the circuit in their modern Airstream caravan so they simply repurposed a 1963 Ferrari 250 Lusso to showcase their Yellow Label bottles. “There is nowhere like it in the world,” says Gilbert-Burke.

The Goodwood Revival runs from September 9 to 11 and is a two-hour drive from London. See goodwood.com for details.

To book a stay in Jumeirah’s London properties, visit jumeirah.com

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Rendering of Dubai Opera House

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arts and culture

Do you hear the people sing?

Dubai’s new opera house marks its aspiration to be a serious cultural contender – but can it compete with more established venues?

Louise Quick and Tahira Yaqoob look at how opera houses can transform the cultural landscape

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estled among the shimmering skyscrapers of Downtown Dubai, already home to the world’s tallest building and the world’s largest shopping mall, lies Dubai Opera. Its gleaming bow juts out expectantly over the 24-acre Burj Lake, as if preparing to set sail at any second. But rather like the stormy seas which faced the ancient dhows it was modelled on, navigating the choppy waters of establishing a cultural icon in a notoriously lofty and esoteric industry is likely to be just as tricky.

“Their lavish architecture and interiors are part of their charm,” says Lucy Woodruff, the founder and director of Divas and Scholars, a non-profit organisation aiming to teach a love of opera. “The great opera composers were connected with these institutions and many of the greatest singers will have performed in these venerable buildings.”

While Dubai Opera is just the latest in a line of modern opera houses, the name is something of a misnomer, for the institution will follows in the steps of its counterparts like the Royal Opera House Muscat and the Sydney Opera House by staging a wide variety of popular acts, of which opera will make up just one part. It opened to great aplomb last month with a performance by the Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and while the subsequent line-up includes Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, Jose Carreras and the Russian State Ballet of Serbia, it also features musicals, an illusionist show and concerts. When it was first announced in 2012, Dene Murphy, a cultural advisor to the project, said: “You could see not only shows like Cirque du Soleil or the Lion King in this venue. It could receive pretty much any show in the world” – all of which, no doubt, had snooty opera buffs peering through their opera glasses in horror and spluttering into their delicately gloved hands.

“Dubai has a reputation for art fairs but generally it is not seen by the world as a place of high culture,” says Woodruff. “An opera house will change this and enhance Dubai.”

Undoubtedly, the critics will be lining up to challenge Dubai’s aspirations to become a serious cultural contender. And while it has a credible team behind it, led by its chief executive Jasper Hope, formerly the chief operating officer of London’s Royal Albert Hall, can it ever compete on the same international platform as the likes of the longer-established Metropolitan Opera in New York, London’s Royal Opera House and La Scala in Milan, Italy? Those purists tend to stick to the operatic and ballet performances which have been their mainstays and are housed in grandiose buildings dating back centuries.

They are admired the world over for their heritage – something new builds surely cannot compete with?

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Dubai’s art scene has flourished in recent years with countless gallery openings and the success of the decade-old Art Dubai. The performing arts have yet to catch up, although the city is working hard to establish itself as a cultural destination.

Hope agrees: “The performing arts have to a certain extent been left behind in this development and a world-class venue in the form of Dubai Opera is therefore overdue.”

Simply by having a large modern performing space, Dubai Opera is opening up opportunities to the city’s culture lovers, who previously had to travel to see such performances.

“I do not think it is an understatement to say Dubai Opera is going to make a significant change to the quality of performances [that come to Dubai],” says Hope. “It has simply not been possible to contemplate bringing a full musical theatre production like Les Miserables from the London or New York stages to the region before.”

And the opera house cannot come soon enough for some. Earlier lavish designs by the late, great architect Zaha Hadid in 2008, taking the form of swirling sand dunes and set to be built on the creek, were put on hold during the global recession. This incarnation has taken just four years after it was first unveiled by the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and was designed by the UAE-based architect Janus Rostock. It

arts and culture

Guangzhou Opera House

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Alter Oper, Frankfurt

The Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

La Scala, Rome

Sydney Opera House

arts and culture

New venues might lack the prestige that comes with centuries-old institutions but their modernity is not always a disadvantage. One reason Dubai Opera is able to host such a varied line-up is its mod cons. The 2,000-seater venue can be transformed into three different modes – theatre, event venue and concert hall – complete with adjustable towers, clever hydraulic engineering and reflectors for optimum acoustics. The same applies to design.

The Royal Opera House in London has had several incarnations since it first opened in the 1730s and visitors admire its grand history-steeped architecture as much as the performances themselves. New build theatres, however, tend to embrace their modernity with contemporary, brave and often controversial designs.

Nearly 45 years after opening, the Sydney Opera House is arguably Australia’s most instantly recognisable landmark and is often cited as a masterpiece of 20th century architecture but when the Danish architect Jorn Utzon won a competition to design the building in 1956 (his entry was reportedly rescued from a pile of discarded submissions) it was hugely controversial. As the cost for building its gleaming white shells overran and there were street

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Yet still we are drawn to haunting arias which express the human condition in ways which transcend language. That has happened across the planet.

Turkey was an early Eastern adopter of opera with the first performance taking place in the Ottoman palaces in 1797 during the reign of Selim. When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the republic in 1923, one of his first moves was a set of cultural reforms, under which young Turkish talent was sent to Europe to study the arts and return as teachers of music and the performing arts. The first Turkish opera, Ozsoy, was performed in 1934 and was followed by the State Opera and Ballet, which still operates in six major cities.

Where opera houses exist, they are often the heartbeat of cultural districts with awe-inspiring architecture, which acts both as a nerve centre and an icon on the landscape: think of the Hadid-designed Guangzhou Opera House in China, dubbed the “double pebble”. Opera’s stuffy reputation can be blamed on its origins in royal courts so it might come as a surprise to discover it was originally a populist art form in the 18th and 19th centuries. Indeed, when Lilian Baylis inherited the English National Opera in 1912, she dreamed of creating a “people’s opera house”. The Times newspaper described her Old Vic theatre in a working class neighbourhood as “offering opera of some sort to people who hardly knew what the word meant…under a wise, fostering guidance it has gradually worked upwards”.

Meanwhile the early 18th century Royal Opera House in London grew its

The performing arts have to a certain extent been left behind in this development and a world-class venue in the form of Dubai Opera is therefore overdue. Dubai Opera is going to make a significant change to the quality of performances

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will form the centrepiece of a new Opera District, complete with art galleries, restaurants and residential towers and signals the emirate’s intention to create a world-class culture and performing arts hub.

demonstrations over its purpose and funding, Utzon resigned and the project took 26 years to complete. Significantly though, the New South Wales government at the time changed the function of the larger opera hall to a concert hall because musical performances were deemed to have a larger audience than opera.

audience, not just with Shakespeare and Handel but with performances from the likes of Joseph Grimaldi, a pantomime clown who amused with visual tricks and buffoonery. Mime acts and music hall shows were also popular – showing today’s opera house line-ups mixing different artistic genres are far from a modern invention.

Similarly, the Shanghai Grand Theatre in China – the home of the Shanghai Opera House – has staged thousands of performances since it first opened in 1998, of which opera forms just a fraction. Its line-up has included musicals, chamber music concerts, drama and Chinese operas. Meanwhile the historic Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany, has kept audiences coming back since 1880 with a diverse line-up, which includes musicals and classical concerts, drawing more than 450,000 visitors a year.

But is there an audience in Dubai for opera? Placido Domingo’s opening show sold out in three hours, suggesting there is a market. Tiffany Schultz, the co-founder of the Courtyard Playhouse in Dubai’s Al Quoz arts district, says the scene is yet to grow. The small volunteer-run theatre used to screen performances from the Met Opera but had to stop because of a lack of demand.

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But why are we all so obsessed with opera? Robert Thicknesse once complained in The Guardian newspaper that the “supposed main event is actually a sideshow to a rigmarole of Issey Miyake shawls, mud-caked mules, champagne and salmon on the lawn” and grumbled: “Is there any other form of entertainment so frequented by people who do not like it?” The cost of public funding for lavish shows purportedly seen by a select few often raises eyebrows. And the debate over whether opera is elitist has been raging for decades – something modern opera houses can challenge with their diverse schedules.

“There was a small but very appreciative audience,” she says. “I have no idea what the audiences are like for the new opera house performances but there are a limited number of classical music aficionados in Dubai.”

While the exact cost of Dubai Opera has not been revealed, a new opera house on a prime site is a massive investment to make, especially when there is a risk seats might not be filled. The Guangzhou Opera House, for example, cost an alleged $202 million while other Hadid designs, such as the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales, were shelved due to a lack of funding. Meanwhile the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing (dubbed the Giant Egg) caused controversy when its construction costs escalated and the Sydney Opera House, originally budgeted at

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TAKE AN OPERATIC TOUR AROUND THE WORLD

The Royal Opera House Muscat

LONDON The magnificent 18th century Royal Opera House with its neo-classical facade is actually the third venue on the site; the previous two were destroyed in fires. Its September line-up is a delight for opera and ballet lovers with Bellini’s Norma, Il Barbiere de Siviglia, Cosi fan Tutte and The Wayward Daughter on the billing.

roh.org.uk STAY in one of Jumeirah’s three London properties. jumeirah.com

FRANKFURT The Renaissance-style Alte Oper was opened in 1880 and hosted a number of premieres, including Carl Orff’s

$5.3 million, eventually cost $72million. It is safe to say that opera houses are not cheap - so why build them?

Carmina Burana. It was destroyed during World War II and was nearly demolished but reopened 24 years later after Frankfurt residents launched a campaign to save it. This month there is a production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in the Great Hall. alteoper.de

“Cities build opera houses in part to display wealth and sophistication,” says Woodruff. “These institutions reflect the importance of a city as a centre of high arts. Affluent populations want public entertainment with the very best international artists.”

STAY in the Jumeirah Frankfurt a short walk away, which has a special deal with the opera house. It includes box seats, a deluxe room, a table during the interval and breakfast for two. jumeirah.com/frankfurt

SHANGHAI The 10-storey Shanghai Grand Theatre hosts an eclectic mix of national and international shows, from Swan Lake to orchestral concerts and traditional Peking opera. It is one of the largest and best-equipped stages

The precedent has already been set with Oman, whose ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said opened its impressive 1,100-seater opera house in 2011. What might have seemed like a flashy statement is now, in its fifth year, well into its stride. The Omanis are as proud of this immaculate, gleaming landmark as they are of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque – the two actually share the same architects – and the venue is on its way to becoming a hub of performing arts in the region. This season it will even run its own in-house productions for the first time and while it will feature some international performers, it is a clear step away from acting as host.

in the world. A packed September schedule includes Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, the Chinese classic Thunderstorm and Deng Shichang. shgtheatre.com STAY in the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel in Shanghai. jumeirah.com/shanghai

ISTANBUL Turkey has a long history of fostering opera and a love of the arts. The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet often stages events in the Sureyya Opera House in Kadikoy, originally opened in 1927 as a cinema and revamped as

STAY in the Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah in Istanbul, itself steeped in history. jumeirah.com

DUBAI

Doha’s Katara Opera House, which opened in 2010 in the city’s cultural quarter, hosts visiting musicians as well as providing a platform for the homegrown Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these efforts across the region, there is some overlap in the schedules of the Muscat and Dubai opera houses.

Domingo and West Side Story are appearing on both stages while Domingo was also Muscat’s opening night performer. Therein lies the problem: modern opera houses like Dubai Opera are clearly capable of attracting international attention but in order to leave a lasting mark on the cultural map, they have to do more than simply import big names from the US and Europe.

They need to encourage local talent.

Schultz is hopeful the opera house will work closely with the grassroots scene and invest in local talent. “Of course, it is amazing to be able to witness worldclass productions live and that can only help inspire younger generations but if there is no investment in developing local talent and giving them that platform, those talented youngsters will simply go overseas.”

A new opera house at the heart of the city’s new Opera District, it is shaped like a dhow with the stage, orchestra and premium seats in the bow and an elongated hull. It is the first dedicated opera house in the UAE and seats 2,000. This month it is showing The Pearl Fishers, The Barber of Seville, Opera Without Words, Coppelia and Giselle. dubaiopera.com STAY in one of Dubai’s eight Jumeirah properties. jumeirah.com

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an opera venue in 2007. The site has hosted classical music, ballet and opera. dobgm.gov.tr

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The Royal Opera House Muscat has already increased the local talent it puts on stage. In addition to its in-house productions and its long-standing Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, the opera house is staging a number of Arabic acts, including the Arab Idol winner and Palestinian pop star Mohammed Assaf and Lebanese violinist Jihad Akl. Qatar too has its own musical academy, opened in 2011 to nurture the country’s young talent. Dubai Opera is a clear stepping stone in the city’s determination to be considered a wellrounded world player. It has already included one Emirati singer, Hussain Al Jassmi, in its autumn line-up. Now it simply remains to be seen whether it can build on feeding the city’s nascent arts scene.

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a capital time

From its sparkling interiors to its pearling tours and sea views, claire Hill finds Jumeirah at etihad towers in abu Dhabi really is all that glitters

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Designed to encapsulate the vision of a progressive UAE while maintaining its cultural soul, the towers’ dramatic sculptural design complements the property’s sophisticated and contemporary interior. Fine craftsmanship, luxurious materials and thoughtful design throughout enhance the guest experience at every opportunity. Look around and you will discover interiors lined with an abundance of semi-precious stones, marble and crystal. From the lifts to the lobby, right through to the guestrooms, each piece has been carefully selected for its colour, properties and the natural energy projected into each space. Look closely and you will also find some fascinating photographs from the private collection of Sheikh Suroor bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, which show scenes from Abu Dhabi’s early days.

There are 382 immaculate rooms and suites at the hotel, which offer spectacular views of the Arabian Gulf. The interiors include rare natural stones, the finest European crystal, rich fabrics and hand-tufted rugs to create an opulent yet welcoming environment. Sunlit bathrooms with walk-in showers and freestanding baths with a view reflect Jumeirah’s Stay Different philosophy, which promises an “imaginative and exhilarating” experience through clever design and superior aesthetics. You might also notice the customised room scent, produced exclusively for the hotel by a master perfumer in Grasse, the heart of the perfume industry in the French Riviera. Described as “sensationally uplifting and soothing”, the scent combines wood, spices and amber with delicate notes of violet, iris and leather as well as green fig. It is available to buy in the Jumeirah collection shop on the lobby level as a diffuser or a spray.

The towers and beyond

This page, top to bottom: Bice restaurant; Talise spa treatment room. Opposite page: Clockwise from top left: hotel exterior, hotel pool; Brasserie Angelique. Next page: Lobby lounge

Prepare to feast like a king as the property is an absolute haven for foodies, from the striking Brasserie Angelique with its elegant 19th century style and wonderful French cuisine to sushi and teppanyaki in Tori No Su, international fare in Rosewater and Lebanese cuisine in Li Beirut. There is also authentic Italian and al fresco dining in Bice and the chance to sample more European cuisine while taking in spectacular sea views in Pearls by Michael Caines. Steak lovers need look no further than Ray’s Grill, which offers quality cuts of meat and stunning city views. For afternoon tea, book a table in the Observation Deck at 300 on level 74. The 300-metre high venue offers

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panoramic views of the skyline, the corniche and the Arabian Gulf. Sample the TWG Tea blends or the signature mocktail, the Etihad Sparkler. Open daily from 10am until 6pm, there is an entrance fee of about $20 for visitors while children under the age of four go free. Hotel guests are entitled to a reduced fee of $16, redeemable against food and beverage in the venue.

biggest in the world. If you have time, take a peek into traditional Emirati life with a visit to the Arabian Nights Heritage Village near Al Ain, a two-hour drive from the capital. The historic Al Jahili fort is a picturesque attraction and an important historic landmark while the Miraj Islamic Centre showcases fascinating exhibits of Islamic art.

If it is time to relax and revive the body, mind and soul, there is no better way to unwind than to book into the Talise Spa. Tranquillity awaits in this luxurious retreat, which offers everything from beauty treatments and purifying facials to 15 types of massages (including Swedish, hot stone and Thai), Turkish hammams and signature experiences which can be tailored to your personal needs.

You can also explore the nearby dunes either by booking a traditional desert safari, a camel trek or quad biking adventure. If you are after something more serene, go in search of pearls in the eastern mangroves. During a ‘pearl journey’, you can board a traditional dhow and learn about the ancient pearling industry, which was once the main source of income in the UAE. Arabic coffee and dates are served before divers jump into the waters and bring up a selection of oysters. You will be given one to open - and if you are lucky and a pearl is found, you get to keep it as a souvenir of a rewarding experience.

If you only do one thing outside the hotel, embrace the local culture and book a tour via the concierge desk to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. One of the largest in the world, this majestic building is a masterpiece of modern Islamic architecture and is open to non-worshippers. It contains a huge white marble courtyard, 82 domes and a 10metre-wide chandelier, said to be the

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By Claire Hill, PR manager and copywriter, Jumeirah Group. On a weekly basis, new stories about Hill’s travels from across the luxurious world of Jumeirah are posted on experiencejumeirah.com.

THE WORLD CAN WAIT

To reconnect with what’s important, you need to disconnect first - get caught up in a special moment and not in the worries of the world. At Jumeirah Zabeel Saray moments like these are abundant. That’s because we take care of every detail of your holiday.

Some call it a luxury, we call it quality time.

Time to let go. For more information, visit jumeirah.com or call +971 4 453 0000

featured spaces It’s one of the things we all love to do when we travel but rarely seem to find time for in our busy working lives. Yet curling up with a good book is one of those luxuries which leaves a lingering satisfaction long after you have turned the last page. Whether it’s a beach read, a biography or a fashion or art book, there is something about cosying up with a good novel that says ‘holiday’ like nothing else can.

Jumeirah has thought of that and included reading rooms in a number of its hotels that just invite you to leaf through the vast selections of books on offer and sink into a squashy couch or armchair to while away an hour or two. There is the Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah in Istanbul, voted one of the top eight hotels for booklovers, where the rarefied atmosphere of the Anouska Hempel-designed Library Lounge speaks volumes of the literary luminaries who have passed through its doors, from Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway to Umberto Eco and Paulo Coelho. Or take the library in the Max on One restaurant in Jumeirah Frankfurt. Stacked with more than 1,500 books in German and English, it has hosted literary events and readings by guest authors in a salubrious setting over canapes and cocktails.

Then there is the Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel in Baku, where you have a choice of not one but two libraries, one inside Yuukai restaurant’s cigar room offering stunning views of the Caspian Sea and surrounding countryside. Whittle away the hours over a leisurely game of chess or browse through the selection of rare books on art, photography, architecture, fashion and history. And in the boutique Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in London, there are lavish coffee table books and novels by local authors in the in-house Belgravia Lending Library, set up in a partnership with the independent bookstore Belgravia Books. From Tennyson’s poetry and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to glossy tomes on Philip Treacy and Vivien Leigh, there is a wide selection on offer and a 20 per cent discount for hotel guests at the bookshop. jumeirah.com

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Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah

Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah

travel

Jumeirah Bilgah Beach

Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel

Max on One

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The high life:

Scape Restaurant & Bar, Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Dubai

The lowdown: It’s a beach house – but not as you know it. Weaving

has given his Californian fusion flavours a seven-star twist to match the

through the carpeted corridors of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah brings you

setting. A whole lobster is beautifully moist, succulent and swimming in a

out onto the new terrace, exuding exclusivity with ample walkways, fresh-

rich lemon and garlic butter with – joy oh joy – the entire shell removed,

water pools and glimmering azure and gold tones. Scape sits squarely

so no need to get messy with a lobster cracker. The mahi mahi ceviche is

in the heart of the new complex. Artful geometric light installations and

delightfully refreshing and as pretty as it is delicious, tumbled on a platter

brickwork walls, together with a palette of cream, white and earth tones,

with shavings of papaya, mango and red onion. Desserts are sumptuous,

seamlessly bring the outside in while glass walls give uninterrupted views

from the salted caramel sundae topped with popcorn to the indulgent

of the Arabian Gulf.

chocolate peanut pot de creme, which just invites you to sink a spoon into creamy chocolate-topped peanut butter. An extensive drinks menu

The atmosphere: The vibe is casual yet chic. There are couples on a roman-

includes a range of aged Macallans and even some Japanese whiskies. And

tic night out, families enjoying a bite to eat and hotel guests tucking in.

the burger? Wagyu, of course.

The spacious interior and outdoor terrace, complete with large circular tables for families to gather round and smaller, more intimate settings,

Insider’s tip: Book a table just before sunset to watch the sun dipping over

ensure privacy.

the Arabian Gulf. You can get a great view from just about anywhere in the restaurant but close to the glass walls is best.

The food: The menu is deceptively simple. At a glance, it looks like the standard beach fare of burgers and pizzas but head chef Timur Fazilov

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To book: Call +971 4 301 7600 or email BAARestaurants@jumeirah.com

Reine de Naples Collection

in every woman is a queen

BREGUET BOUTIQUE – DUBAI MALL

DUBAI (UAE)

+ 9 7 1 4 3 3 9 8 7 5 6 – W W W. B R E G U E T. C O M