Shopping Festival aims to barter with bazaar theme

Dubai: Organisers of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) have announced yet another innovation to get everyone in the mood for the up-coming retail event.

DSF said its Bazaars of the World theme was based on the "vibrant and traditional bazaars of the old Islamic world", and promises to provide great entertainment and shopping opportunities for everyone.

The bazaar will be located on Al Seef Street in Bur Dubai and is scheduled to be open from 4pm to midnight daily.

Clearly going for a touch of the aesthetic, and hoping to drive visitors to perhaps some of the less well-known parts of the city, a DSF press statement said the bazaar would provide "not only great shopping opportunities, but also a peek into the past, reflecting the various periods of history and development that the region has witnessed".

The traditional bazaar has also been created to give shoppers first-hand experience of the strong bartering and trading traditions of the Arab world.

"The bazaar is a unique achievement of Islamic culture where people come to trade and barter for a profit. The heart of the city, the bazaar, is a combination of a trading centre, a resting and meeting place and the location where people with different ideas and skills gather to sell their wares."

DSF said it had spared nothing in trying to re-create the mood of the bazaars of bygone days.

"True to the spirit of traditional bazaars around the world, Bazaars of the World will also carry with it the whiff of incense and will be loaded with everything under the sun a family might need including sparkling gold and jewellery, silk, coffee, amber, calligraphy, painting, wood, glass, metal, ceramics, leather and so on."

Workshops on traditional crafts will also be available including carpet weaving, glass blowing, tanning and drying of leather products, silver engraving, perfume making, sword making, silver and wood engraving and tile, with traditional coffee shops and restaurants on hand to provide refreshment.

Some of the world's most vibrant bazaars will be represented at Bazaars of the World including those of Cairo, Aleppo, Sanaa, Isfahan, Marrakesh and Istanbul.