100,000 tonnes of ice used for beach festival in Dubai

While UAE waits to tow a real iceberg from Antarctica by early 2020, the Dubai Ladies Club has launched its own artificial floating iceberg island on its premises as part of the second edition of its 'DubaICE' beach festival. 

The event is part of a series of initiatives being organised by the club to spread happiness among women and children, and will take place during weekends to coincide with the Eid Al Adha celebrations.

About 100,000 tonnes of ice is being used to chill the ladies-only beach during the festival, as per the Dubai Ladies Club director, Lamia Abdulaziz Khan.

DubaICE' is launched under the theme 'This summer, winter is coming' and is home to interactive snow, water, and entertainment activities for both women and children, effectively conveying winter-like elements of the arctic to the club's very own beach.

"This event is exclusively focused on women, giving them time to relax, and assuring them that their kids are being taken care of and also having a good time with the interactive and fun children's activities and entertainment, " said Khan.

She said that 'DubaICE' is in line with the commitment of Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Women Establishment and wife of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, to providing a well-rounded environment to spread happiness among women and children.

Among the attractions at 'DubaICE' is an ice-tent that includes fun children's activities, entertainment performances by Disney 'Frozen' characters Elsa and Anna, an ice-cube tanning corner, snowman building, ice-creams and more.

Due to the overwhelming success and popularity of 'DubaICE' in 2017 that saw almost 7,000 women visitors, this year's edition is twice the size of the first, providing a cool respite from the hot temperatures in Dubai this summer. The initiative, which will continue every Friday and Saturday until September 1 from 3pm until 7pm.

"The process of dropping the temperature throughout the 'DubaICE' festival was achieved by taking a variety of measures. While the main feature of 'DubaICE' was undoubtedly the construction of temperature-controlled structures situated on the beach such as the Igloo Spa's zero-degree temperature, and exciting elements like the floating iceberg island, additionally 100,000 tonnes of ice will chill the beach during the festival, she said.

"A number of women are especially flying down from Europe and GCC countries to enjoy the DubaICE festival, as this provides a unique kind of leisure activity to women and children. We are pleased with the turnout to this year's festival and the crowds that the 'DubaICE' activities attracted not only from within the UAE, but from neighbouring GCC countries and other regions around the world."

saman@khaleejtimes.com