Dubai: The UAE’s live entertainment sector now has a self-sustaining audience insulated from global and regional economic or geopolitical issues, Ali Haidary believes.
Haidary, whose agency Sport & Entertainment Solutions is helping stage Disney Live: Mickey’s Music Festival at Dubai World Trade Centre in April, said the growing number of long-term expatriates provided a core demand for entertainment and the sector was not reliant on tourists and visitors to thrive.
“As in all business, socioeconomic geopolitical factors make some level of impact,” he said. “Having said that we are as lucky as we are doing business in a market like Dubai. We have our own market here. When we do an event for 40,000, 50,000 people, we are very well catered for in this market. We are not necessarily looking to attract spectators or visitors from around the region or around the world.
“Of course, if they were coming that’s great, but for whatever reason, if it’s the time of year, there’s less visitors, if the economy isn’t as good as it was a few years ago, fine we don’t suffer that much because Dubai has become a very a very well-maintained market, a very self-sufficient market.
“If you look at dependence, [Dubai is] not oil-dependent. We’re not necessarily any specific industry dependent. There’s tourism, there’s finance, there’s a lot of travellers, there’s a lot of festivals coming through. Business have their headquarters in Dubai, so you have continuous traffic. For that part, for the events that we do, I believe we will always be self-sufficient.”
The limiting factors on staging live entertainment, he said, are the climate, calendar and the availability of venues. With international tours planned years in advance, bringing new events into the region faced challenges fitting in around summer and Ramadan.
Improving market
And despite the building of more venues in the UAE and in the region, demand for events still outpaces availability.
“I believe that the market is improving very, very quickly. It’s a chicken and egg thing — do you build before there is huge demand or do you slowly grow the demand, get the education right, get the people to a level where they are theatregoers, where the evening dinner and theatre with the family or with the wife becomes a regular thing. That I think is where the focus is now, getting the education, getting people to start enjoying theatre and going to more and more.
“Then the theatres will be built. In a market like Dubai things get built super, super fast. Where there’s a will, there’s certainly a way.
“I believe it’s happening. I see shows that are locally produced now as well, and I have a lot of time for them. They do a lot of popular things with local talent like Annie, Mary Poppins.
“I believe if you watch over the next two or three years that will really develop very quickly.”
More venues are in the pipeline, he said. The Dubai Opera House is due to open in November this year, and Expo 2020 would bring more.
“I believe we are already seeing some definite indirect benefits,” Haidary said. “Over the course of the next few years we will see more and more opportunities and more benefits. It’s only four years away. As we get closer the benefits will get more direct, more tangible, but already we are seeing improvements in the infrastructure, improvements in public transport, improvements in the venues, which were planned but are now being executed.
Benefit
“The opera house will be an amazing venue for us to host theatres shows, musicals, concertos and classicals, which are definitely all on our agenda.
“That’s a massive benefit for us and this is going to bring Dubai even closer and more in line with the global entertainment capitals. I also expect as we get closer to Expo 2020 and increase in travellers — tourists and business travellers — and that’s going to have an impact. We may not necessarily plan for or focus on tourists and travellers for our shows, but when we are getting more for sure there will be a percentage of those coming to our shows. That’s an added bonus.”
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Horacio Renna, Feld Entertainment’s vice-president for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, said availability of venues was the single most important factor when deciding whether to bring a show to a region — and not just in one city, but in the surrounding region.
“The idea is to build a consistent tour. If the demand is not enough to bring one show for two, three, four weeks — ideally five — it will not be easy to come back on a yearly basis.
“We will open [Disney Live] in Bahrain after Dubai for sure. Disney on Ice, there’s no way we can fit it.”
But the logistics of bringing a touring show from Europe meant that it had to be able to tour within the region to be cost-effective, he said, adding that Feld were exploring venues in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon in addition to the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar, where they have already staged Disney shows.
Feld, who have a regional partnership with Dubai-based SES Solutions, has a line-up of shows that includes Monster Jam, Marvel Universe Live and the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus as well as Disney Live and Disney on Ice.
“We are working closely with them to look at opportunities to bring these shows — one, some all of them — to the region over the coming years, but nothing is set in stone,” said SES Solutions CEO Ali Haidary. “Feld is the biggest producer of family entertainment content in the world and we are always looking for opportunities with them.
“Each of these properties has its own challenges. We are looking for solutions.”
“The Middle East is a very expensive market,” Renna added. “Dubai is the heart of everything. Dubai has the demographics. It needs a world-class show. When we saw that, we decided we have to be here. We want to be part of this process.
