LEISURE CHARTS
This weekend’s don’t-miss events.
Spend your weekends this winter celebrating Al Ain culture with a new programme highlighting the Garden City as a cultural hub of the UAE, with events at Al Ain Oasis, Al Ain Palace Museum, Multaqa Zayed National Museum, Qasr Al Muwaiji and Al Jahili Fort. Lovers of farmer’s markets should head to Al Ain Oasis every weekend until April; there are also arts and handicraft workshops, storytelling events, outdoor films, a year-round photography programme, and traditional Emirati performances in the Plaza area. Other events in the year-long programme include Travels Through Our Traditions, where visitors and residents can meet and chat with Emirati women in their homes and farms; My Old House Bus Tours will take you to visit old homes, oases, and historical and cultural sites; and the Emirati Melodies event at Qasr Al Muwaiji, two concerts featuring UAE Voices, a choral singing group performance inspired by the poems of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
If you’re looking to lighten up your weekend, don’t miss the seventh annual Sharjah Light Festival, which runs at venues across the emirate until February 11. The city’s architectural gems are lit up in creative and dazzling ways, thanks to interactive light projections with music. There’s also a parade on Khalid Lagoon Corniche. Last year, more than half a million people visited the festival, which now has new venues. See the lights at these sights: University City Hall, Cultural Palace, Al Noor Mosque, Al Taqwa Mosque, Al Qasba, Palm Garden, Kalba University, Khor Fakkan University, Dibba Mosque, Al Dhaid Mosque and Dr Sultan Al Qasimi Centre for Gulf Studies.
If you’ve got kids that need to expend a bit of energy, there’s a bean bag waiting for you at Souk Madinat Jumeirah’s Wacky Weekends. Children are welcomed to the Amphitheatre every Friday and Saturday from 2-5pm (except for February 10-11) for face painting, a costume photo booth, a balloon-bending clown, games and activities. Parents can just take a load off in the lounge or surrounding cafés, and entry is free for all.
Nearby, Madinat Theatre starts its new season with families in mind, too: There’s a 10-day run of a musical retelling of the
Aladdin tale. Tickets are Dh180-270, and the show runs from February 9-19.
Dance lovers should head to Ductac on February 9 for Eloge du Puissant Royaume, aka Krump, a contemporary dance show brought to Dubai by Alliance Française. This dance form originating in 1990s LA has been choreographed by French-Algerian Heddy Maalem. Tickets for the one-hour show at Dh80, from the theatre.
One of the best films in recent years is getting a free (first-come, first-served) screening at Cinema Akil tonight. Sean Ellis’
Metro Manila (left) is a Philippines-set crime thriller and screens at 7pm as part of the Work in Progress season, running until March at Alserkal Avenue’s The Yard and A4 Space.