Khaleej Times

100K tonnes of ice used to chill ‘ladies only’ festival

- Saman Haziq saman@khaleejtim­es.com

dubai — While the UAE waits to tow a real iceberg from Antarctica by early 2020, the Dubai Ladies Club has launched its own artificial floating iceberg island on its premises as part of the second edition of its DubaICE beach festival.

The event is part of a series of initiative­s being organised by the club to spread happiness among women and children, and will take place during weekends to coincide with the Eid Al Adha celebratio­ns.

About 100,000 tonnes of ice is being used to chill the ladies-only beach during the festival, as per the Dubai Ladies Club director, Lamia Abdulaziz Khan.

DubaICE is launched under the theme ‘This summer, winter is coming’ and is home to interactiv­e snow, water and entertainm­ent activities for both women and children, effectivel­y conveying winter-like elements of the arctic to the club’s very own beach.

“This event is exclusivel­y focused on women, giving them time to relax, and assuring them that their kids are being taken care of and also having a good time with the interactiv­e and fun activities and entertainm­ent, “said Khan.

She said that DubaICE is in line with the commitment of Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Women Establishm­ent and wife of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidenti­al Affairs,

to providing a well-rounded environmen­t to spread happiness among women and children.

Among the attraction­s at DubaICE is an ice-tent that includes children’s activities, entertainm­ent performanc­es by Disney ‘Frozen’ characters Elsa and Anna, an ice-cube tanning corner, snowman building, ice-creams etc.

“Due to the success and popularity of DubaICE in 2017 that saw almost 7,000 women visitors, this year’s edition is twice the size of the first, providing a cool respite from the hot temperatur­es in Dubai this summer. The initiative will continue every Friday and Saturday until September 1, from 3pm until 7pm.

“The process of dropping the temperatur­e throughout the DubaICE festival was achieved by taking a variety of measures. While the main feature of DubaICE was undoubtedl­y the constructi­on of temperatur­e-controlled structures situated on the beach such as the Igloo Spa’s zerodegree temperatur­e, and exciting elements like the floating iceberg island, additional­ly 100,000 tonnes of ice will chill the beach during the festival, she said.

“A number of women are especially flying down from Europe and GCC countries to enjoy the DubaICE festival, as this provides a unique kind of leisure activity to women and children. We are pleased with the turnout to this year’s festival and the crowds that the ‘DubaICE’ activities attracted not only from within the UAE, but also from neighbouri­ng GCC countries and other regions around the world.”

 ?? Photo by Mohammad Mustafa Khan ?? Kids having fun at the DubaICe festival. the ice tent includes entertainm­ent performanc­es, ice-cube tanning corner and snowman building to name a few.—
Photo by Mohammad Mustafa Khan Kids having fun at the DubaICe festival. the ice tent includes entertainm­ent performanc­es, ice-cube tanning corner and snowman building to name a few.—

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Arab Emirates