Dubai Festival City Mall is a 185,000 square meter shopping center on Dubai Creek. The shopping center is only 5 minutes from Dubai International Airport. It is an ideal place where you can shop, relax and enjoy delicious food and entertainment.
The shopping center is the heart of the modern business and entertainment area. In the Dubai Festival City area you can also find the only IKEA in Dubai. Dubai Festival City also offers several accommodation options in one of the four hotels, the InterContinental Dubai Festival City, Crowne Plaza Dubai Festival City, Holiday Inn – Dubai Festival City and the Palazzo Versace Dubai.
The Dubai Festival City Mall is for watching the Dubai sunsets a popular destination. This location on Dubai Creek has fine panoramic view of the Dubai skyline. The shopping center has been awarded for the Five Star Award “Best Retail Development” by the Arabian Property Awards. The Dubai Festival City Mall already received two other prestigious Retail City awards for “Mall of The Year” and “Best Retail Destination of the Year”. With these awards end nominations, it must be worth a visit.
Shopping at the Dubai Festival City Mall
In the Dubai Festival City Mall you can shop for hours in more than 400 different stores. You can shop in the stores of Toys R’us, M&S, H&M, DKNY, Kate Spade, DVF, Top Shop, Fred Perry, Guess, Levi’s, New Yorker, River Woods, Zara, SuperDry, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Gant, Enrico Marinelli, Marks & Spencer, Pierre Cardin and Diesel.
The Dubai Festival Mall is the only shopping center in the Middle East where you can shop at a branch of Robinsons, a luxury retail chain from Singapore. In addition to shops with the latest ladies, men and children’s clothing, there are also a lot of shops with toys, watches, accessories, watches, sports equipment, shoes, handbags, jewelry and many other things. Next to the shopping center, you will also find the only IKEA store in Dubai.
Entertainment at the Dubai Festival City Mall
The Dubai Festival Mall is not only a top place to shop, for young and old it also offers fantastic entertainment. You can catch a movie in one of the 18 halls of the NOVO Cinemas cinema and enjoy the latest Hollywood films in comfortable VIP cinema seats.
Or have a great time in the indoor amusement parks Fabyland and Stay Play where you can play video games or go wild in the trampoline park. You can also learn to fly in the flight simulators of the Dream Aero attraction or have fun in Bounce X with a lot of trampolines, slides and parkour routes.
You can also
Do you prefer romantic entertainment? Than you can book a boat trip on the Dubai Creek and sail with a traditional abra boat on the main waterway of Dubai. You can also enjoy the view of Dubai Creek on a ride on the Festival Wheel Ferris wheel. Or take a walk along the Canal Walk and enjoy the view over the Dubai Creek and the impressive Dubai skyline.
During New Years Eve, UAE National Day and the Dubai Shopping Festival, there are always big fireworks displays at the Dubai Festival City shopping center. During various other celebrations such as Diwali (one of the most important festivals in Hinduism) and the end of Ramadan, you have the chance to admire a fireworks show at the shopping center.
IMAGINE Laser & Light Show
The Dubai Festival City Mall is located on an artificially constructed harbor. Every evening you can see the IMAGINE’s show, this show set a Guinness world record. Thanks to the unique character of the show and the special technology behind it, IMAGINE’s state-of-the-art shows have managed to set two world records. The show is in the Guinness Book of World Records with the record for the largest projection screen in the world and with the record for the largest water screen projection in the world.
The IMAGINE show is made possible by 30 high-tech dancing fountains on which HD images are projected on 360 degree water screens. The high-tech video mapping projectors can project millions of colors, resulting in razor-sharp and colorful images. The images are spectacularly supported by lights, lasers, fire and music. This combination of water, light and sound makes IMAGINE’s show one of a kind and cannot be admired anywhere else in the world.
Six IMAGINE shows per day
On weekdays there are six IMAGINE shows to admire and in the weekend even eight shows on one evening. In total, three different Imagine Show’s are shown every evening, each with their own unique design and theme. All shows can be viewed for free, you do not need a ticket to admire the crazy shows at the Dubai Festival Mall.
The shows last about 10 minutes and can be seen on the water where fountains create a kind of mist / wall of water on which the images are projected. The show is combined with lights and sounds and the adjacent InterContinental Dubai – Festival City hotel is used as the world’s largest projection screen.
The shows start at half past seven in the evening and depending on the day, the last show can be admired at half past ten or eleven. The shows can be seen every half an hour on the waterfront promenade at the Festival City shopping center. Below is indicated per show on which days and times the shows can be viewed.
A Child’s Dream
The A Child’s Dream show is all about the dreams of a child. You see aeroplanes, magical whales, a mystical tree house and dancing robots. The entire show has combined different types of music, creating a special soundtrack with modern pop, rock and electronic music.
Weekdays: 19:30 and 21:00
Weekend (Friday & Saturday): 19:30, 21:00 and 22:30
A Pirate’s Tale
With this show you dive into the world of the epic battle between pirates and a loyal Dubai Pearl Diver, Ameer. The show tells the story of Captain Blackbeard stealing an emerald green ring from Poseidon. Poseidon’s daughter asks Ameer to find the ring and give it back to her father.
Weekdays: 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Weekend (Friday & Saturday): 20:00, 21:30 and 23:00
Stardancer
The Stardancer show shows an artistic adventure that is conveyed through contemporary dance. Stardancer is the story of gravity personified – a girl who gracefully glides through the cosmos and finds her own way to converse with the stars and planets that surround her.
Daily: 8:30 PM and 10:00 PM
Have a dinner at the Dubai Festival Mall
The Dubai Festival Mall is a popular place to dine. The mall features a large number of waterfront restaurants with views over the waters of Dubai Creek. You will also find a food court of 3500 square meters in the shopping center itself where you can mainly get fast food.
By the water you have the choice of 20 restaurants where you can dine while admiring the sunset from the terrace. The restaurants offer a wide variety of international cuisines including Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Italian and American. The following restaurants can be found in the Dubai Festival Mall:
Al Fanar
Applebee’s
Cafe Bateel
California Pizza Kitchen
Chili’s
Eataly
FAMOUS DAVE’S
Five Guys
Galito’s
Hard Rock Cafe
IKEA Restaurant
Joe’s Crab Shack
Nando’s
Oporto
PF Chang’s
Paul
Peppermill
Rainforest Café
Semsom
Sugar Factory
Sultan Baba Iskender
TGI Fridays
Texas Roadhouse
The Cheesecake Factory
The Fish House
The Manhattan Fish Market
Tortilla
Turkish Village Restaurant & Café
Zaatar W Zeit
How to get to the Dubai Festival City Mall & opening times
The Dubai Festival Mall is open daily from 10am to 10pm. On Thursdays and Fridays, the shopping center is open until midnight. The restaurants in the shopping center are open daily from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM, except Thursdays and Fridays. On Thursdays and Fridays, the restaurants close their doors on midnight. The hypermarket supermarket in the shopping center are open daily from 09:00 to 00:00.
The Dubai Festival Mall is located on Dubai Creek, but not directly near a metro station. As a result, you cannot just take the Dubai metro and get off in front of the shopping center. If you want to travel to the Dubai Festival Mall by public transport, get off at the Creek Metro Station on the green metro line. From here it is a few minutes walk to the Ad Jaddaf Marine Transport Station. Here you can catch an abra which will take you over the Dubai Creek and drop you off at the Dubai Festival City Marine Transport Station.
You can also travel by metro to the Emirates Station metro station on the red line. From here the bus line F08 leaves, which stops at the stop of the shopping center.
Other bus lines that stop at the mall are bus line 44 from Al Ghubaiba Bus Station (Bur Dubai) to Rashidiya Bus Station and bus line 53 from Gold Souq Bus Station (Deira) to International City.
If you come with your own transport, you can park in the parking garage of the shopping center, where there is room for 10,000 cars. Parking at the Dubai Festival Mall is free. You can also take a taxi from your hotel to the Dubai Festival Mall. The shopping center has a taxi rank right in front of the entrance, so you don’t have to walk far.
