Dubai Spring Carnival starts today

Zabeel Park will host the Dubai Spring Carnival 2010 from today to April 10, the organisers, Corporate Hospitality Services, have announced.

Speaking to Emirates Business about the new planned city carnival, Sajitha Faizal, Director of Corporate Hospitality Services, a Dubai-based event management company and tourism consultancy, said the event was planned as a major outdoor carnival for families of all nationalities visiting the park. She said various entertainment and fun activities , including cooking and eating competitions, live DJs, premier rock bands, art exhibitions, magic shows, music and cultural events and children's games will be held for families. Most of the participating artists will be local residents.

The event is being organised jointly with Dubai Municipality (DM) and ExecutiveBachelors.com, another event management firm. The organisers plan to make it an annual carnival, that will be later extended to other parks and other emirates.

Sources at DM said the Dubai Spring Carnival is an initiative by private sponsors, but the municipality is allocating a particular area in Zabeel Park for such community activities.

"Revenue generation from parks run by the municipality was not a priority earlier," said an official from the civic body who did not wish to be named. "Now we are encouraging more community activities in public parks, which can draw in thousands of visitors every day and more during weekends.

"The daily footfall at Zabeel Park is about 11,000. The entry fee to the park is just Dh5 and such community activities will increase footfall and revenue for the municipality."

Entry to the Dubai Spring Carnival 2010 will be free, but visitors will have to pay Dh5 for the Municipality Park Entrance ticket.

Ahmed Abdul Karim, Director, Department of Public Parks and Horticulture, said: "The public parks in Dubai are not purely commercial entities and the Dubai Government has invested several billion dirhams to develop these parks in accordance with the long-term vision of the leaders. It is our core strategy to attract more people to public parks."

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