Clubbing in Dubai: The Making of a “Party Capital”

The aim of this chapter is to assess the changing identity of the city of Dubai to becoming a hub of party entertainment in the Middle East. In 2012, Lonely Planet, named Dubai and Tel Aviv “today’s party capitals of the Middle East.” The juxtaposition of these two very different cities in the Lonely Planet’s world ranking of “Ultimate Party Cities” testifies to the transformation of Dubai’s identity in recent years. Israel has already had a reputation of a party outpost in the region thanks to, among others, a number of music festivals organized there (Best Festivals in Israel, Secret Tel Aviv. Retrieved October 23, 2018 from https://www.secrettelaviv.com/best-festivals-in-israel, n.d.), hence the inclusion of its capital in the ranking testifies to a long-standing tradition of entertainment. But Dubai, thanks to “the swank bars and clubs of the Middle East’s most decadent desert getaway,” (Lonely Planet, Ultimate Party Cities. Retrieved March 1, 2018 from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-tips-and-articles/ultimate-party-cities/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d2777622, 2012) has grown its party reputation in the last decade and in the ranking, has outwon Beirut, a top contender traditionally known to be the party capital of the Arab world. This rapid transformation of Dubai’s identity is thus especially interesting to analyze.