Dubai: If you head down to Kite Beach this weekend and see thousands of flags fluttering in one place, you have reached the beach’s Flag Garden, an annual project organised by Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office.
A large part of the beach has been transformed into an open-air art museum to mark the end of year national celebrations in the UAE.
Up to 4,000 flags have been arranged in the area to create a beautiful portrait silhouette of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
The project, which was launched during the National Flag Day celebrations, also features a green maze in the shape of the number ’46’ to mark the upcoming 46th UAE National Day.
“This is the fourth edition of the Flag Garden, and every year it attracts the same interest from residents and visitors across Dubai. This year we have arranged the flags to create the silhouette of the late Shaikh Zayed to mark the ‘2018 the Year of Zayed’, Shaima Al Suwaidi Project Manager told Gulf News.
The work, which took more than 10 days to put together the flags that cover an area of 100x80 metres of the beach space. For a better view of the work of art, platforms have been placed at the beach for people to view the installation from a higher angle.
“Each year we come up with a different arrangement of the flags. Two years ago we created the shapes of the letters in the country’s acronym ‘UAE’ and last year the flags were arranged to create the shape of the UAE map,” Al Suwaidi said.
The year 2018 has been declared as the Year of Zayed by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The ‘Year of Zayed’ will highlight the role of the late leader in establishing the UAE Federation, and his local, regional and international achievements.
“Flag Garden aims to celebrate all these three occasions that are very dear to the people in the UAE. At Brand Dubai we always look at working on projects that people can interact with and enjoy. This is the only place where people will get to see so many flags at the same time,” she said.
The green maze has become an attraction for many children visiting the beach in the last few days.
Brand Dubai invited the public to visit the ‘Flag Garden’, take photos and share it on social media with the tags #BrandDubai and @BrandDubai. The flags will remain hoisted in the ‘Flag Garden’ until the conclusion of UAE National Day celebrations in the first week of December.
