emirates7 - We’ve had a strange couple of years, haven’t we?

By the standards of many cities there have been a wealth of openings, events and talking points.

But by Dubai’s incredible standards it was a little quiet.

While the spectre of the global coronavirus pandemic lingers on, we’re starting to see headline acts returning to the city and major developments putting the final polish before a grand opening.

2022 will see returning favourites such as world-renowned art, food, shopping and literature festivals that have become annual fixtures on the Dubai social calendar.

There is sure to be plenty of entertainment to look forward to, with comedy, theatre and music acts already booking venues.

Most intriguing of all are the new must-see venues about to open their doors. Stunning new hotels, high-profile restaurants and incredible new nightspots to explore. Oh, and the city’s coolest building will open up, too.

All signs point towards it being another incredible year lived at the speed of Dubai.
Check out our selection of 22 of the most exciting things to look forward to in 2022.

GIGS TO GET TO
Chicago
The longest-running American musical on Broadway raises the curtain on another year of performances at Dubai Opera. The razzle dazzle story and score is theatrical entertainment at its finest and has picked up six Tony awards, two Olivier awards, six Academy awards and a Grammy in the 46 years since its debut. Well-known for the Catherine Zeta-Jones-starring Hollywood adaptation and numbers such as All That Jazz it is a tale of murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, relationships and treachery. No matter how many times you have heard the songs and seen the film, watching sassy jazz slayer Roxie Hart, murderous Velma Kelly and smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn on our premier stage is an opportunity not to be missed.

Jack Dee
After 35 years in stand-up comedy Jack Dee is one of the UK’s best-known comics. His deadpan style has seen him tour around the world, even popping up in Dubai before now, and he is as adept as anybody in the game at working stadiums on the scale of Dubai Opera or more intimate rooms. As the famously grumpy curmudgeon himself says “In these difficult and uncertain times people need hope – a ray of sunshine to brighten their day. And that’s very much where I come in”.

James Blunt
James Blunt has just released a greatest hits album and before embarking on a massive Europe-wide tour the hugely popular singer-songwriter will play a gig at the Coca-Cola Arena. Blunt has sold more than 20million records and is best known for hits “Goodbye My Lover”, “1973” and, of course, “You’re Beautiful”. In recent years he has become as popular for his tweeting and wryly funny public appearances as his music, and this promises a sing-along night of musical heartbreak.

Bill Bailey
There is something so joyously entertaining about a large-scale Bill Bailey comedy performance. It is hilarious, of course. That’s a given. But the blend of performance and musicianship elevates it beyond comedy to something extra. As much a hugely entertaining lecture or presentation on musical theory as it is a stage show, you will hear sound in a different way that you never thought possible. Bailey’s infectious style, surrealist flights of fancy and razor-sharp wit never let it fall on the wrong side of funny, however, and this will be a contender for comedy of the year for sure.

FESTIVAL FAVOURITES
Dubai Shopping Festival
Just because it happens every year, it doesn’t mean it isn’t brilliant. Let’s call it The Birthday Principle. Welcome back these annual favourites. As ever the year kicks off with the Dubai Shopping Festival. Obviously there will be sales and giveaways aplenty to look forward to in the malls and al fresco shopping areas such as Market OTB (an outdoor bazaar in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa), but we’re especially looking forward to the return of DSF Drone Light Shows for mesmerising art meets technology bedazzlement.

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
Celebrating all things bookish, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will be back once again. That means dozens of local and visiting authors representing every genre imaginable will be hosting Q&As, meet the writer sessions and workshops.

Art Dubai
Of similar international acclaim is the world-renowned Art Dubai. It is coming up to 16 years since the international art fair first launched and it continues to attract buyers, sellers, exhibitors and artists from around the world with challenging and important works.

Dubai Food Festival
It will come as no surprise to anybody that Time Outers have Dubai Food Festival marked on our calendars already. The celebration of all things foodie promises to celebrate the diverse cuisine of more than 200 nationalities and there will be cooking showcases, Dubai Restaurant Week discounts and visiting chefs from the world’s top restaurants. We have our elasticated trousers at the ready.

Dubai International Boat Show
We will almost certainly never own a superyacht. But we like nosing around inside superyachts, calling people “me hearties” and waving at people on land from on deck. So, Dubai International Boat Show can’t come round again soon enough.

SPORTING FAVOURITES
Dubai Desert Classic
Attracting the world’s greatest sporting talent for competitive events and exhibition games can throw up some of the best Dubai has to offer. Sports stars seem to enjoy the city and, we have to imagine, extremely competitive prize money and appearance fees while we get to see some of the greats up close.

Over the years we’ve known many non-golf fan who have rated a day at the golf as one of Dubai’s nicest days out. Walking around in all that greenery, a general buzz of excitement, hospitality tents. Chuck in the best of the best of the pro tour and there is a lot to like about the Dubai Desert Classic. Local favourite and former winner Rory McIlroy has already confirmed he will play and Colin Morikawa, Sergio Garcia and defending champion Paul Casey are also included in a field that will no doubt have more of the game’s current stars.

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
Television can’t prepare you for how fast, accurate and powerful professional tennis players are. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships has seen the greats of the game over the years and while we’re not yet sure who will be taking to the court it is sure to be the leading players in the world right now.

We’re especially hoping to see a Dubai debut for Emma Raducanu. The rising star has already confirmed she will play at Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship and has said one of her best friends lives in Dubai so we’re crossing our fingers that a Dubai stop is in her plans.

Even if you don’t go courtside to watch the action the annual caravan of entertainment, meet the player sessions, coaching and retail is worth a look at next to The Irish Village. And then there’s the IV itself – and we never pass up visit to Dubai’s best pub garden.

MAJOR NEW OPENINGS
Atlantis, The Royal
The 13 years since Atlantis launched in Dubai have passed in a heartbeat and it seems as new and iconic as it did when A-list stars from around the world turned up for an opening night like no other. Now we’re about to get a second as the Atlantis, Royal Resort is set to open and it looks incredible. The striking exterior will stand out even among the architectural wonders of Dubai, but it is the attractions within that put it at the very top of every Dubaians must-see list. 18 restaurants and bars with eight celebrity chefs being represented. Long-term Dubai favourites Gordon Ramsay, Nobu Matsuhisa and Giorgio Locatelli all return and foodies will be intrigued by the arrival of restaurants from Gaston Acurio and Ariana Bundy. Most tantalising of all, however, are outlets from culinary geniuses Heston Blumenthal and José Andrés, whose restaurants hold Michelin stars. As well as being a theme park for tastebuds, the hotel, which actually has residences in the building, will have 90 swimming pools, including an infinity pool more than 90 metres up in the air and a spa with its own salt caves and snow sauna. For fans of the Lost Chambers, at what we’re now going to have to start calling Atlantis 1, there will be three aquariums. One of which is the largest jellyfish tank in the world. (4,000 jellyfish in that one, apparently, fact fans).

The Pavilion at The Beach
While it has never felt crowded we’re impressed that somebody has found the space for yet more food and drink down on The Beach development opposite JBR. Pavilion at The Beach is a giant, air-conditioned space that will have six separate restaurant venues. Mall favourite Eataly will have its first beachfront property and Hurricane’s Grill will pop up, too. We’re particularly pleased that Tokyo-inspired homegrown Japanese concept Akiba Dori gets a second outlet and there will also be German newcomer Cafe Buur added to our scene.

The London Project 2.0
If you have already been to The London Project’s Bluewaters Island base then you might have an idea what to expect from the next evolution of the multi-level food and drink concept coming to the Marina Walk at Dubai Marina. We might have to wait until around March, but we’re predicting this could be one of the city’s most stylish new openings of the year. Housed over three floors with a different theme on each we’re expecting one of the most Instagram-friendly locations in the Marina when doors finally open. Get used to the name, by the way, as The London Project will expand to Miami, Barcelona and, er, London in the coming months.

The Guild DIFC
Even if you don’t know the name Tom Arnel, you know his restaurants. He is the Tom from Tom&Serg and with former business partner opened up fantastic outlets such as The Sum of Us, Common Grounds and the Brunswick Sports Club. Not a bad résumé by any stretch of the imagination (especially when backed up with spells at arguably the world’s best restaurant The Fat Duck and with Jones the Grocer in Abu Dhabi).

The Guild, due to fling open doors around March of 2022 could be the finest opening to date. It will open at the foot of the $1bn ICD Brookfield Place office complex and will be one of the largest dining areas in the country. Sneak early pictures also suggest it will be one of the greenest, too. Sustainability plays a big part in ICD Brookfield Place and the restaurants will also use gasless and electricity-free fire to cook in non-traditional manner. Zones within The Guild include the greenhouse-style Potting Shed, tree-lined The Avenue and a live animal-filled Rock Pool.

Large enough to serve 430 diners and with Arnel’s reported promise that there will be no bad tables it might be the most ambitious opening of the year ahead. If anybody can pull it off, though, it is Arnel.

Legoland Hotel Dubai
Everything is awesome about the Legoland Dubai theme park. Apart from you can’t stay overnight, right? Wrong. The Legoland Hotel is attaching the final bricks before an imminent opening very soon. If kids designed hotels they might not have luxury spas or celebrity chefs, but they may have giant Lego dragons at the entrance as well as pirate ships and castles in the lobby. That’s exactly what visitors here will be able to look forward to and each of the 250 rooms and suites are Lego-themed as well. There will be interactive Lego experiences throughout the hotel and guests have access to the theme park and water park as well, meaning this is likely to be the staycation spot your kids are most likely to vote for.

Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah
It feels ludicrous to say this about a neighbourhood that has been wowing us for more than a decade, but it really feels like 2022 is the year that Palm Jumeirah comes into its own. It will get a new Hilton hotel, for a start. We’ve had Hilton hotels in Dubai for decades, but this latest looks like it could pull in visitors from all over the city thanks to a crowd-pleasing food and drink offering. Snubbing celebrity chefs or high-concept lounges it instead offers a roster of classic favourites of the likes almost guaranteed to offer good nights out. Barfly by Buddha-Bar is hip, trendy and stylish with knowing chic and international appeal. Claw BBQ is the type of easy going crab shack in which you are given a plastic bib and encouraged to forget table manners. Factory is a new industrial-style mixed drinks bar from the good folks at the McGettigan’s group. Jones the Grocer is hot everywhere it opens. Then there is a new Trader Vic’s, everybody’s favourite Polynesian-style fun-pub to top it all off. There will be a couple of homegrown concepts such as a stylish beach bar thrown in for good measure, too. We’re thinking of this one as an Avengers-style grouping where the collective might is even greater than all the individual favourites on their own.

Dubai Hills Mall
As much as we like Dubai, there is a feeling sometimes that there isn’t enough in the way of shopping. That shortfall (#jokes) will be remedied if the long-awaited Dubai Hills Mall finally opens. Reports on social media say the mega retail and leisure complex, delayed a few times already, will fling open its many doors in February. It is operated and owned by Emaar, the company behind Dubai Mall and Dubai Marina Mall, so they know a thing or two about big-scale shopping experiences. On the fringes of the Dubai Hills community (which itself has an 18-hole golf course, three schools and more than 50km of cycling routes) the vast shopping space will span 282,000sq m and include more than 600 shops, leisure outlets and, no doubt, another whopping great big cinema. We’ve heard talk of an indoor rollercoaster too, because malls in Dubai need more than just shops.

Museum of the Future
Settle a debate for us – is this Sheikh Zayed Road attraction now Dubai’s coolest building? Seriously. We’ve watched it being built for years now and it already feels familiar, but we really think it might be the most beautiful building in the city.

There are taller buildings, the Burj Al Arab is obviously iconic and there are a few others that stand out, but this might actually be the finest and most postcard-worthy of them all. The torus-shaped museum has a stainless steel facade and features Arabic calligraphy including quotes from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Part of the distinctive writing reads “We may not live for hundreds of years, but the products of our creativity can leave a legacy long after we are gone” and the sentiment is certainly true here.

We can’t wait to step inside and see the exhibits which, unlike most museums, are forward-facing rather than retrospective, with visitors invited to go on a journey to 2071.

W Dubai Mina Seyahi
The W Hotel brand is a funky offshoot of the behemoth Marriott International group best characterised for its modern, hip and urban-inspired hotels. It will be expanding its UAE portfolio with a new 31-storey tower on the Dubai beachfront. Early promises include a sundown lounge and a signature outlet overlooking the Palm from the 31st floor. Upscale wellness seems to be a focus, as well, with the UK’s 1Rebel Fitness taking a dual-storey studio in the property.

The World Islands
A whole new world is finally starting to appear on reclaimed land just off the Dubai coast.Anantara World Islands Dubai will open in the final days of 2021 and marks what could be a busy year for the World Islands. Situated in ‘South America’ it will be a luxury staycation retreat for anybody lucky enough to snag a booking at the 70 suites and beach villas.

We’re hoping the Anantara opening will be the first of many planned resorts in the most ambitious of mega-developments. Next up we could see the long-awaited Portofino Family Hotel in Dubai. It is part of the Heart of Europe cluster and will mimic the picturesque Italian fishing village. This hotel will cater only to families and is said to have more than 500 aquariums and a hanging garden.

When complete the first phase of the Heart Of Europe will also be home to the Sweden Beach Palace (where every ground floor includes a snow room) Germany Island, couple’s retreat Honeymoon Island (with a dedicated seven-star wedding hotel), underwater hotel Floating Venice and more.

District 2020
The finest development of 2022 might already be here. Expo 2020 has been a phenomenal success and is attracting rave reviews from around the world. After the event draws to a close in March, a smart city focussed on innovation and technology will emerge. The country pavilions will all be packed up and sent home, but 80 percent of the project’s built environment will be repurposed as part of Expo’s sustainable goals.

What remains is the dawning of a new Dubai urban zone, aiming to attract businesses and entrepreneurs to sectors such as AI, big data and the Internet of Things. All sounds very impressive, but what does it mean?

Well, while Expo 2020 is currently the hottest ticket in town and a place we should all visit, it willis ultimately a long-term project and one where we live, work and rest.

For District 2020, Expo is just the start. It is earmarked as one of the key areas for growth in Dubai’s 2040 masterplan and will be one of the areas of greatest change in the years ahead. Watch this space.

New year, new weekend
In less than three weeks, life as we know it will change dramatically. Weekends in the UAE will shift to a Saturday-Sunday, with a half-day on Friday. The transition applies to all federal government employees, but schools across the UAE have already announced plans to adopt the new weekend and it is likely to roll out across the private sector. Team Time Out is making the move to a Saturday-Sunday weekend, while over in Sharjah, the entire emirate will work a four-day week (race you there).

As we gear up to starting our week on a Monday – and wait anxiously for Dubai’s finest restaurants to announce that they are moving their brunches to Saturdays – here’s a quick guide to the new-look week for a bold new year.

*timeoutdubai