
Events

Joke Hub
Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, DubaiA regular MadCat Comedy night – "Dubai's wildest comedy show on Saturday" (sic). The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.
AED 99LAST CHANCE Daniel Arsham: What Remains
Perrotin Gate Village Building 5, DIFC, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesA solo show by the American artist Daniel Arsham, known for his works of 'fictional archaeology' expressed through sculpture, architecture, drawing, and film – what he calls “future relics of the present.” This exhibition marks the 24th collaboration between the [ ... ]
FreeLAST CHANCE Mohammed Joha: Houselessness
Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiIn his latest work, Palestinian artist Mohammed Joha redefines collage as "an architecture of rupture and reassembly, both a method and a metaphor". His works bring together scraps of fabric, paper, cardboard, plastic and other salvaged materials, textures pulled from [ ... ]
FreeThe Nutcracker
Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, DubaiThe Russian State Ballet Mari El is touring a selection of classic ballets around the UAE this week. This time it's Tchaikovsky’s evergreen seasonal favourite "in a dazzling production that blends classic choreography with fresh expression". There are shows at [ ... ]
From AED 159An Unwritten Country: Frauke Heard-Bey in conversation with Meitha Al Mazrooei
Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, DubaiHistorian and author Frauke Heard-Bey joins scholar Meitha Almazrooei to discuss the long arc of writing and archiving history. Heard-Bey’s landmark publication From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, first published in 1982, is an essential source for anyone interested [ ... ]
Free, but pre-registerSunday Night Comedy
Social Distrikt The Pointe, Palm Jumeirah, DubaiDubomedy's standup night at Social Distrikt returns. This has become a bit of a fixture: good vibes, good comedy, and "you never know who will pop in". Recommended. It's free, but it's getting popular, so pre-booking is recommended to get [ ... ]
Free, but minimum spendTamerlano
Dubai OperaThe second performance of this spectacular "reimagining" of Handle's opera by the flamboyant director and designer Stefano Poda. It blends Handel’s score with "a new musical concept" by composer Kirill Richter that weaves in traditional Uzbek instruments. The sets feature [ ... ]
From AED 300LAST CHANCE Besher Koushaji: Moments of Hope
Firetti Contemporary Unit 29, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiKoushaji’s exhibitions continues his exploration of memory, resilience, and the human condition with a new body of work that “reflects on a world shaped by displacement, conflict, and uncertainty, yet illuminated by fleeting moments of beauty and strength”. His signature [ ... ]
FreeRomeo and Juliet
Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, DubaiThe Russian State Ballet Mari El, a company known for its commitment to classical ballet technique, is touring a repertoire of ballet standards in the UAE. It has gained a reputation for the quality and accessibility of its performances; so [ ... ]
From AED212.50
Jumana Emil Abboud: The Storyteller and the Obedient Tide
Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, DubaiJumana Emil Abboud’s first solo exhibition in the Emirates draws on the lineage of Palestinian folktales and their continued resonance in the present – how stories inhabit landscapes, shape personal histories and collective memory, and create an enchanted relationship to [ ... ]
FreeLAST CHANCE Kwang Hyun Kim: Flytrap Anthology
Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, DubaiA solo show for the Korean artist reflecting Kim’s belief that we live within a paradox where we can be both predators and shelter for one another. Says the gallery: "despite this contradiction we continue to reach outward, to connect, [ ... ]
FreeThe Comedy Lab @ Easy Tiger
Al Ain Palace Hotel Corniche Road, Abu DhabiMadCat’s standup team at its regular stop in the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks ...
AED 99Sharjah Festival of African Literature
University City SharjahThe second edition of the festival brings together 20 African and nine Emirati authors for around 20 Library sessions, book talks and panel discussions – and a series of African cooking sessions. The theme is “The African Way”, which is [ ... ]
Free, but pre-registerOff the Menu in Dubai: Arva S Ahmed
Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, DubaiArva Ahmed is the entrepreneur behind Frying Pan Adventures, one of the Dubai’s more interesting food tour guides. This talk draws from her writings, YouTube channel, and television work to take stock of her career, her evolving relationship with the [ ... ]
Free, but pre-register
Boom.Diwan with Nduduzo Makhathini, Liany Mateo, and Elé Howell
The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesAn evening of new music from Boom.Diwan's forthcoming album, which is being recorded this week. The style is their characteristic merging of Kuwaiti maritime and desert traditions with the improvisational energy of jazz. Joining the ensemble are some distinguished collaborators, [ ... ]
Free
RUSTING ECHOES
NYUAD Arts Centre Project SpaceWorks by Yoshi (Aisha Al Ali), Ammar Al Banna, Ahmed Al Kuwaiti and Shaikha Al Shamsi. The theme is time as both a material and emotional presence, expressed through processes of transformation, memory, repetition, and decay – so time not [ ... ]
Free
Yuyu Zhitong: Serendipity
Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, DubaiThe debut solo exhibition in the Middle East for the Chinese-born London-based artist, known for her luscious sweeps of colour and a mordant wit (“Good Girls Go To Heaven, Cool Girls Go Everywhere”). This show presents a new body of [ ... ]
Free
The Story of Art: The Age of Reason and Revolution – From Academic to Realism
Bassam Freiha Art Foundation Cultural District Saadiyat Island, Abu DhabiBassam Freiha Art Foundation continues its monthly lecture series led by Dr Michaela Watrelot, BFAF Curator and Director of Exhibitions. This time it explores a pivotal moment in art history shaped by political upheaval, intellectual transformation, and shifting social ideals [ ... ]
Free, but pre-registerConversation: Daniele Genadry and Nadine El Khoury
NIKA Project Space Unit 11 Al Khayat Avenue, 19th Street Road — Al Quoz 1, DubaiArtist Daniele Genadry and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Associate Curator Nadine El Khoury will discuss Genadry’s practice and her approach to landscape through light, perception, and visual uncertainty, in relation to ecology, mediation, and the themes of the current group exhibition [ ... ]
Free, but pre-register
UAE National Orchestra: The Beginning
Emirates Palace Abu DhabiThe UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January. Performances in Abu Dhabi and Dubai will feature the acclaimed Iraqi oud virtuoso Naseer Shamma [ ... ]
From AED 250The Comedy Lab
Radisson Red Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, DubaiMadCat Comedy's regular stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week". The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks.
AED 99The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club
The Bay, Al Hamra Golf Club Al Hamra, Ras Al KhaimahThe November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half a million fans on [ ... ]
AED 160
Digital Art: Printed Works
Kutubna Cultural Center Madina Avenues 17, Nadd Al Hamar, DubaiA group show – 27 artists, 35 works – of prints from digital art that represent “a kaleidoscopic range of subjects and sentiments reflecting the complexity and richness of being human today … Rendered through digital tools, in some instances [ ... ]
Free
Urdu Worlds
Ishara Art Foundation Alserkal Avenue, DubaiA contemporary art exhibition dedicated to the Urdu language: accoridng to Ishara, "the show explores how language provides the tools with which we create and shape our internal ‘worlds’. Words, rather than simply describing our surroundings, give rise to our [ ... ]
Free
Echoes in Colors
Renaissance Business Bay Hotel Al Abraj Street, Marasi Drive, Business Bay, DubaiA group show in the Renaissance Business Bay’s lobby for “a diverse roster of Dubai based artists” that is “defined by variety rather than a single style" and linked “through colour, emotion, and storytelling”. To 27 January.
Free
Ras Al Khaimah Art 2026 Festival
Al Jazeera Al Hamra Ras Al KhaimahIn the last few years the Ras Al Khaimah Art Festival has grown into a solid contributor to the UAE’s arts and culture scene, with a community-oriented twist to the mix of exhibitions, performances, workshops and film screenings. There’s always [ ... ]
Free
Vladimir Kurumilian: MO(VE)MENT
Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, DubaiA live solo performance by the Lebanese-Armenian neo-classical pianist and composer (and a member of the Jameel team) for his latest album, MO(VE)MENT, which was released at the end of last year. Kurumilian says his music engages with questions of [ ... ]
Free, but pre-register
The Viennese Ball with the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra
Theatre of Digital Arts Souk Madinat Jumeriah, DubaiA recreation of the classic Strauss-laden New Year’s concert from imperial Vienna, an hour and a half of classics from Die Fledermaus to the waltzes (like Blue Danube, Emperor Waltz, Voices of Spring, Donner und Blitzen). And yes, there will [ ... ]
From AED 200Politically Incorrect Comedy
Xandros Singature 1 Hotel, Barsha Heights, DubaiMadCat Comedy's regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.
AED 80The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club
Radisson DAMAC Hills Hessa Street Dubailand, DubaiThe penultimate stop for the November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half [ ... ]
AED 160LAST CHANCE Lala Rukh II: The importance of staying quiet
Grey Noise Unit 24 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesThe first part of this series, Lala Rukh I, presented a selection of photographs from the artist’s archives during her years at the University of Chicago (1974-76). Its speculative framework helped us to stage the evolution of Lala’s photographic sensibility, [ ... ]
Free
Kais Salman: Remnants
New work by Kais Salman, who "places his audience among ruins ... his recent body of work acting as a pile of forgotten images buried beneath decades of historical buildup ... Faces emerge through Salman’s energetic brushwork, only to fade [ ... ]

Anuar Khalifi: Remember the Future
The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesThe third Third Line solo exhibition by Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi comprises a new body of large-scale paintings and works on paper that represent an evolution in Khalifi’s practice, with increasingly intricate and carefully composed settings expanding the pictorial field. [ ... ]
Free
Alia Hussain Lootah: In the Space of Becoming
Aisha Alabbar Gallery Warehouse C19, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiIn this new body of work – paintings, drawings, and sculpture – Alia Lootah continues an exploration of how form moves, shifts, and transforms ("a form is never finished, only paused"). Shapes stretch, collapse, and reappear altered, "existing in a [ ... ]
FreeAnahita Razmi: The Task of the Mythologist
CARBON 12 17th Street, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesAnahita Razmi's video, installation and performance works usually focus on issues of identity and gender and examine processes of cultural appropriation in which the meanings of existing images, artefacts and thus identities are put into question by situating them in [ ... ]
Free
:mentalKLINIK: Are You Human Enough
Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesSet within an environment of visual overload and compulsive accumulation, the work in this third solo exhibition at the gallery for the artist duo centres on the human figure at risk of dissolving into surface, interface, and pattern – a [ ... ]
Free
Aïda Muluneh: This Bloom I Borrow
Efiɛ Gallery 2 Al Khayat Art Avenue, First Al Khail Street, DubaiA new series of images by the Ethiopian art photographer, her second solo exhibition at the gallery. The show includes 10 works that have never been seen before, using techniques developed through Muluneh's recent residency at Efie. Muluneh has been [ ... ]
Free
Saher Nassar: Chronicles from the Storm
Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiIn this new body of work, Nassar reflects on prolonged states of loss, endurance, and moral exhaustion, translating deeply personal and collective experiences across multiple mediums. Says the gallery: "Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a [ ... ]
Free
Sarah McEneaney: Creative Non-Fiction
Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiFor nearly five decades, Sarah McEneaney has devoted her practice to a singular theme, the meticulous chronicling of her own life. This exhibition presents a series of paintings that chart the latest moments and milestones in a life – domestic [ ... ]

John Dilg: Found and Lost
Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, DubaiThe Iowa-based artist John Dilg represents scenic panoramas as earth-toned paintings that feel immediately familiar yet poignantly dreamlike. Having specialised in abstraction early in his career, Dilg’s evolution towards landscape painting retained an especial awareness of spatial relationships – "a [ ... ]

Al Hosn Festival
Al Hosn Abu DhabiThis living expression of Abu Dhabi's Culture is always worth a visit. The emphasis is on heritage, so the Al Hosn programme includes traditional souks, performances (lots of ayyalah), food, coffee, kids’ workshops and more. It runs 4pm to 11pm [ ... ]
AED 35Reel Palestine Social
One Life Kitchen & Café Building 5, d3, DubaiThe RP Social returns for "an afternoon of great food, familiar faces, and engaging conversations around this year’s must-see films". Always a good meetup, and since this time it's in the afternoon there's more chance for kids to get involved [ ... ]
AED 250
Legends and Motifs of Feathers
L'ÉCOLE Middle East, School of Jewelry Arts Building 10, Dubai Design District, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesAnother of L’ÉCOLE Middle East’s entertaining talks about the art of jewellery – mostly of course from the atelier of the school’s parent, Van Cleef & Arpels. This one explores how birds and feathers became a major theme in jewellery [ ... ]
AED 50
War and Peace
Dubai Opera Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, DubaiTolstoy’s epic novel has often resisted dramatisation as a one-off theatrical performance – it’s huge, after all, which is the classic BBC series from 1972 ran for fully 20 episodes and Sergei Bondarchuk's film adaptation from the 60s spanned seven [ ... ]
From AED 300UAE National Orchestra: The Beginning
Al Ain City Municipal Theatre Civic Centre, Al Jimi, Al AinThe UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January with variations in the programme (though all include Nadim Tarabay's specially commissioned symphony The Beginning) [ ... ]
From AED 150The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club
Dukes The Palm Palm Dubai, DubaiThe final gig for the November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half [ ... ]
AED 160
Miqdaad D: Failed Successfully
Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, DubaiA standup special by MadCat Comedy's main man, Miqdaad Dohadwala: life advice for how to live your 20s, from a guy who did everything wrong. We think the regular MadCat comedy night deal applies, meaning a cover charge of AED [ ... ]
AED 99LAST CHANCE Ala Younis: Past of a Temporal Universe
NYUAD Art Gallery Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesThis mid-career retrospective marks the first institutional survey in the region for Ala Younis. It includes archival installations, textiles, murals, mosaics, and drawings spanning the last two decades of her hybrid practice as an artist-researcher-curator. There will also be some [ ... ]
FreeWar and Peace
Dubai OperaThe second and final performance of the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre adaptation of Tolstoy’s epic novel, by celebrated director Rimas Tuminas. Reviews suggest that most of the grandeur and complexity of Tolstoy’s work has been retained, with the Napoleonic Wars [ ... ]
From AED 300























