Dubai: A truck driver unexpectedly drives home with two cars plus Dh100,000. An Indian family preparing for their daughter’s wedding bags gold prizes. An expatriate flying home for good to take care of his ailing mother wins gold on his last day in Dubai.
These stories seem like fairy tales, but this is how the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) makes dreams come true.
For one month every year over the past 20 years, scores of residents and tourists have realised many of their dreams through prizes won during the DSF.
From 1996 till date, Dh1.8 billion worth of prizes have been given away.
The raffle prizes are just one among the many attractions of DSF. If you’re not here to win, then you’re here to shop or spend time with family during Dubai’s most festive time of the year.
“Since it was launched in 1996, DSF has always aimed high and all of us at Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment [DFRE] have spared no effort in ensuring that the festival lives up to its reputation as a global attraction,” Laila Mohammad Suhail, CEO of DFRE, told Gulf News.
“Today, we can take pride in the fact that Dubai Shopping Festival is not only the longest-running festival of its kind in the world, but that it has truly become a citywide achievement that has grown from being focused on sales and promotions to providing unique shopping experiences through innovative retail promotions.”
As DSF draws to a close, Gulf News looks back on how DSF has changed the rhythm of Dubai and touched the lives of millions, in the UAE and around the world.
