• The Comedy Lab

    Radisson Red Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai

    Mad Cat Comedy's regular Thursday stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week".  The door price of AED 99 includes one drink and popcorn.

    AED 99
  • SCHLiNGEL Abu Dhabi: day two

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    SCHLiNGEL is an international film festival for children that has been running since 1996 in Chemnitz, Germany, showcasing the most exciting new productions for young people. The  film for 23 Oct is a reprise: A Butterfly's Heart dir Inesa Kurklietytė [... more]

    AED 25
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • Un Air de Famille

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Second performance of this Francophone comedy by Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri . Every Friday the Mesnards gather at the family café before going to dinner; but for this night the unspoken tensions and buried frustrations are revealed ... SOLD [... more]

    AED 160
  • Rhythms of Africa: Djembe & Kora

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    "An evening of music, rhythm and discovery" – a live performance featuring the harp-like djembe and the kora drum, traditional instruments of West Africa. We haven't been told who will be playing, but the price does include a preliminary aperitif [... more]

    AED 65 – AED 80
  • Sima Dance Company: Kaynuna

    Zayed Theatre, SUAD Campus Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Created by choreographer Alaa Krimed for his Sima Dance Company – the UAE's only (semi)permanent dance company? – this original production merges contemporary dance with tech and especially AI: "As the boundaries between humans and Artificial Intelligence continue to shift, [... more]

    AED 75
  • Politically Incorrect Comedy

    Xandros Singature 1 Hotel, Barsha Heights, Dubai

    Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.

    AED 80
  • Johnague Show

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    From the awkward moments of everyday life to the unexpected twists that everyone can relate to, John Ague delivers an energetic performance packed with great storytelling and clever punchlines.

    From AED 160
  • SCHLiNGEL Abu Dhabi: day three

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    SCHLiNGEL is an international film festival for children that has been running since 1996 in Germany, showcasing the most exciting new productions for young people. This is the main event of SCHLiNGEL Abu Dhabi, a day of screenings each of [... more]

    AED 25
  • CLOSING TODAY Private World

    Green Art Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A group show for Lulua Alyahya, Rami Farook, Sohrab Hura, and Khaled Jarada that promises to take the viewer into “intimate, elusive worlds … Modest in scale, invite a form of looking that is closer and more inward, creating encounters [... more]

    Free
  • Moulin Rouge! Le Musical

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s film, the musical brings 1900s Montmartre to the stage, blending a tragic love story with a modern pop soundtrack and all the theatrical energy you could hope for ... The Culture Emulsion team promise "the glamour, [... more]

    AED 110
  • Joke Hub

    Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, Dubai

    A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – “Dubai’s wildest comedy show on Saturday” at “the first purpose built comedy room in the country”. The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.

    AED 99
  • The Dating Show by Noha & Denise

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    Comedy from two very sharp standups who work really well together. From first dates to ghosting, situationships to heartbreak stories, Noha Bashir and Denise Alexe address the struggles of dating life via sharp humour, relatable stories, and a brilliant chemistry [... more]

    From AED 160
  • Carte Blanche

    La Galerie, Alliance Française Dubai Alliance Française Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A group exhibition organised with Feminin Pluriel, featuring the work of a selection of contemporary female artists. Participating artists were given carte blanche to explore their own creative perspectives; the result is seen in photography, painting, sculpture, 3D and mixed [... more]

    Free
  • Maktaba: Performance as is, Performing with Yoonsik Chico Park

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Maktaba is 421’s monthly gathering dedicated to collective reading, viewing, and discussion across disciplines. This session moves from thinking about performance to thinking through it – using the body, space, gesture, and relationality as sites for inquiry. Through a combination [... more]

    Free, but pre-register
  • UAENO: Romantic Masters

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The UAE National Orchestra continues its active schedule with the second performance of a good-looking programme of contrasting music from three great Romantic composers – lively melodies from Rossini in the overture to The Barber of Seville, technical virtuosity and [... more]

    From AED 200
  • Dubai Bibliophiles: Poetry Session – Vote for Your Favorites

    The Coffee Club Times Square Center, 4B Street, Dubai

    Discuss the top seven poems (from a list of 50) that have received the most votes by members. As with any such list, it's highly debatable – way too many US poets, way too few from MENASA (including the UAE, [... more]

    Free
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • Comedy at the Speakeasy

    Moon Bar Mina Al Salam, Madinat Jumeriah, Dubai

    The Mad Cat team does the rather cool Moon Bar at the Sana Restaurant in Mina Al Salam – a great venue: quite intimate, few distractions. Featuring surprise drop-ins, fresh material, and “the kind of intimate room where sitting in the [... more]

    AED 99
  • Moulin Rouge! Le Musical

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Second performance of Culture Emulsion's Francophone take on the Baz Luhrmann film, bringing 1900s Montmartre to the stage for a tragic love story with a modern pop soundtrack.

    AED 110
  • Mallika Taneja: Do You Know This Song?

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy Sharjah

    Surrounded by toys and objects from her childhood, Mallika Taneja uses a harmonium and a microphone to look for what she has lost – a singer and her songs. As she moves between this tale of searching, singing and grief, [... more]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Matter of Light

    Dom Art Projects Al Khayat Avenue, Dubai

    A group show curated by Eugenia Kikodze, this exhibition brings together a multigenerational group of artists from across the Arab world and Eastern Europe, bound by a shared interest in metaphysics and its representation within art. The artists include Zaha [... more]

    Free
  • The Matter of Light

    Dom Art Projects Al Khayat Avenue, Dubai

    Dom Art Projects' third non-selling exhibition explores the formal and perceptual aspects of light through a variety of approaches from the 22 participants, "from rationalist modernism and expressionism to ironic conceptualism" as Dom Arts puts it. The artists are Akram [... more]

    Free
  • Kirill Makarov: Unveiled – Painting in the Age of Post-Produced Reality

    Dom Art Projects Al Khayat Avenue, Dubai

    Makarov's solo exhibition responds to the mediated nature of contemporary reality by reconstructing armed conflict environments from fragments of media imagery circulating in a post-analogue world. Working across figurative painting and digital media, Makarov explores the relationship between virtual and physical [... more]

    Free
  • Localized Futures: The Arts

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    421's season of talks and panel discussions developed in collaboration with afikra, Localized Futures, explores the future of key cultural and civic sectors through a regional lens – challenging the dominant global narrative by looking at the complexities, innovations, and [... more]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Comedy Lab @ Easy Tiger

    Al Ain Palace Hotel Corniche Road, Abu Dhabi

    Mad Cat’s standup team at their regular stop at the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks …

    AED 99
  • Fridge Concert Series 50: The Season 50 Special

    The Fridge Warehouse Warehouse 5, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    This special gig brings Concert Series alumni and fan favourites back to the stage for one-off collaborations and extended jams. The artists will be announced ahead of the night, and "you never know who might walk on next". Food for [... more]

    Free, but pre-register
  • MAWASIM: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

    The Abu Dhabi Edition Al Bateen Marina, Abu Dhabi

    Christie’s first live auction of fine art in Abu Dhabi takes place on 1 November, preceded by two viewing days open to all. There will be more than 70 works from six decades of museum-quality art that traces the evolution [... more]

    Free
  • UAENO: One Big Family

    Cultural Foundation Qasr al Hosn, Abu Dhabi

    Celebrating the UAE Year of the Family 2026, the UAE National Orchestra brings audiences of all ages together for a joyful and interactive concert. Rhythm games, listening challenges and conversations with the narrator invite families and first-time concertgoers to become [... more]

    tbc
  • CLOSING TODAY Talal Moualla: The Table of Absence

    K Gallery Al Barari, Seventh Heaven, Dubai

    For more than five decades, the Syrian artist, poet, and critic Talal Moualla has approached the image not simply as representation, but (says the gallery) “as a form of thought ... Moving between painting, criticism, poetry and research, his practice [... more]

    Free
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • The Comedy Lab

    Radisson Red Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai

    Mad Cat Comedy's regular Thursday stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week".  The door price of AED 99 includes one drink and popcorn.

    AED 99
  • CLOSING TODAY Hisham Sharif: Allusive Veil

    Ayyam Gallery B11, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Sharif’s first solo exhibition in the UAE presents an autobiographical and very personal series of works about the struggles of private and artist life in a closed society – "a vulnerable, nuanced presentation of life”. The Bahraini artist uses colour [... more]

    Free
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • Fouad Boussouf & Le Phare-CCN du Havre Normandie: Näss (People)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The energy of 1970s Moroccan music meets hip hop in this piece by choreographer Fouad Boussouf, performed by the company of Le Phare - Centre chorégraphique national du Havre Normandie (where he's been the director since 2022). Näss (People) orchestrates [... more]

    AED 105
  • Politically Incorrect Comedy

    Xandros Singature 1 Hotel, Barsha Heights, Dubai

    Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.

    AED 80
  • CLOSING TODAY Stephan Kaluza: From Dust to Bloom

    JD Malat Gallery ACT 2 Tower, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd 13A ,Downtown Dubai, Dubai

    Stephan Kaluza’s practice is fundamentally concerned with depictions of nature, either as hyper-realistic oils or near-abstract renderings. These two modes of painting should be seen as different stages of the same subject in a process of transformation: disruptions creep in, and [... more]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Oussama Diab: Reimagined

    Artbooth Gallery Centro Capital Center, Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street, Abu Dhabi

    A solo show for the Palestinian-Syrian-Dutch artist that reinterprets celebrated masterpieces from Western art. Diab revisits iconic works by artists including Picasso, van Gogh, Michelangelo and van Dyck, applying his own distinctive visual language to allow the images to speak [... more]

    Free
  • Salah Elmur: Just as the Heart of a Mango is a Stone

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Bringing together paintings, archival photographs, sketches and ephemera produced after 2018, this exhibition offers an immersive encounter with Salah Elmur’s world, "one where memory, landscape and identity merge and ripple through time" as the Jameel puts it. Through paintings that [... more]

    Free
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • Joke Hub

    Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, Dubai

    A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – “Dubai’s wildest comedy show on Saturday” at “the first purpose built comedy room in the country”. The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.

    AED 99
  • Maria Hassabi: Us

    Cultural Palace Cutlural Square, Al Riqa Suburb, Sharjah

    A 6m bench along the front edge of the stage compresses the space into a narrow, linear runway. Five dancers trace this boundary through a sequence of calculated tableaus, their bodies caught between rest and anticipation. The bench acts as [... more]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Valentina Danubio: I Love Them, But …

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    An hour of new material from the always excellent Valentina, this time on the people we love, the things they do that drive us crazy, and all those moments that make relationships so complicated.

    From AED 160
  • CLOSING TODAY Artists’ Rooms: Kamruzzaman Shahdin

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    A monumental one-room installation that restages the Bangladeshi artist's The River Remembers. Originally commissioned by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and created in 2023, this large-scale textile work has handcrafted threads mapping the colour of the water of the Teesta and [... more]

    Free
  • Salah Elmur

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Bringing together paintings, archival photographs, sketches and ephemera produced after 2018, this exhibition promises an immersive encounter with Salah Elmur’s world – "where memory, landscape and identity merge and ripple through time", exploring the artist’s shifting sense of belonging and [... more]

    Free
  • Promis le Ciel | Promised Sky: dir Erige Sehiri (2025)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Sehiri’s intimate drama follows four generations of Ivorian immigrant women as they find solidarity, conflict and sometimes a sense of displacement in one another’s company. We're dropped into the lives of Marie (Aïssa Maïga), Naney (Debora Lobe Naney) and Jolie [... more]

    AED 31.50
  • CLOSING TODAY Alaa Itani: A Momentum for the Horizon

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A visual meditation on the horizon as both boundary and promise, a visible line that remains perpetually distant. Alaa Itani's solo show brings together reverse glass paintings of horizons, blurred landscapes, and moving cloud formations; he explores landscape as acts [... more]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian: I Bloom Where You Hold Me

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Collaborative works from Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian’s ongoing Flower series, unfolding across gallery walls covered with hand-drawn graffiti; rooted in the artists’ shared and individual experiences, the works consider what it means to care for, sustain and grow alongside [... more]

    Free