Up in Smoke

I've been to the Atlantis twice already (it highly deserves its own bizarre blog post, I will try to get to it), but last night was the grand opening. Although much is still under construction, this was also the "soft opening" for the Palm Jumeirah. We went to the office at midnight and climed up to the roof to watch the fireworks show. It really was the best place in all of Dubai to watch it. It felt like New Years Eve- we awkwardly felt the need to congratulate each other. A lot of the beachside restaurants charged very hefty entrance fees as if it were New Years.

Watch this, and remember that the Palm is 5 kilometers by 5 kilometers.



There is a lot of controversy about the event, considering Dubai is feeling the financial crisis and people are losing jobs. There are a lot of articles on the logistics of the event, the guest lists, etc. We never saw any celebrities...

Residents of the Palm had to return home before 4 PM on thursday in order to get access for the rest of the night, as all Palm traffic/movement was stopped. Traffic was backed up all the way down Jumeirah Beach Road, and by the end of it all, the smoke was so thick that you couldn't see anything on the Palm.

In case anyone is interested, I stole this brief from my friend Carla:

The official opening of Atlantis saw dozens of celebrities and Kylie Minogue performed her concert for the 2,500 VIP guests who were able to attend by invite only. Guests included Robert DeNiro, Lindsay Lohan, Samantha Ronson, Mischa Barton, Charlize Theron, Michael Jordan, Lily Allen, David Beckham, Richard Branson, Mary Kate Olsen, and a host of other celebrities. (Oprah had to cancel at the last minute because of the threat to her home from the California wildfires.) The whole party including fireworks cost a cool $20million. The spectacular fireworks went off all over Palm Jumeirah Island for about 15 minutes. It was truly a sight to see. It was said to be the most expensive fireworks in the world. At least 100,00 were set off last night from 716 launch points.