Dubai : The A-list celebrities came, they partied, and when the world’s biggest ever fireworks display began just after midnight, Atlantis was declared officially open and Dubai witnessed the most extravagant and expensive party in its history.
Over 2,000 of the world’s rich and famous were flown to Dubai on Thursday for the launch of the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah, a £1 billion (Rs 80 billion) mega-resort built on a man-made island shaped like a palm tree in the Persian Gulf.
At a time when recession, bailout and pink-slips are part of everyday lingo, there was little sign of parsimony as the organisers rolled out the red carpet — and presumably the cash as well — for the one-night party. The cost of the “freebie of the century”, according to London’s Daily Mail, was a mere £20 million, or Rs 160 crore.
No one paid for an air ticket and the travel bill itself was estimated to be £3 million (Rs 24 crore), the paper said. World’s top celebrities, including Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron, Lindsay Lohan, Janet Jackson, Dame Shirley Bassey, The Duchess of York, Michael Jordan, Chris Tucker and Lily Allen dined on signature dishes prepared by Atlantis’ multi-Michelin-starred chefs Santi Santamaria, Michel Rostang, Giorgio Locatelli and Nobu Matsuhisa.
And if it’s Dubai, it has to be Bollywood: besides Shah Rukh, actresses Rani Mukerji and Priyanka Chopra and movie mogul Yash Chopra rubbed shoulders with local royalty.
Atlantis Dubai, a pink maze of arches that looms large on the city’s skyline, includes an aquarium boasting 65,000 sea creatures, including sharks, eels and rays, a water park and a priceless sculpture made of 3,000 hand blown pieces of glass.
The hotel’s signature Bridge Suite, which features floor-to-ceiling views of Dubai, costs over £25,000 (Rs 20 lakh) a night. With such a select crowd at Atlantis, some will stay on for four days, there were issues over who would put up where.
Oprah, a role model for women in West Asia whose talk shows have the highest ratings in the Gulf among English language programmes, was allotted the super-exclusive suite suspended between the resort’s two towers.
But when she pulled out of the party, the honour of spending the first night went to King Khan, who owns a resort on the Palm Islands and is said to be keen on the property business in the Emirates.
The superstar pipped the likes of acting great Robert Di Niro — a partner in the Nobu restaurant chain which has a site in the resort — and Oscar winner Charlize Theron, who had to make do with lesser suites.
The highlight of the night was a gig by Australian singer Kylie Minogue and her 113-strong dance troupe on the beach. The Mail reported that the performer was paid £1.5 million (Rs 12 crore) for a 10-song 45-minute medley of her hits, which works out to some £33,333 (Rs 26.66 lakh) a minute. Besides, she got a free holiday as well.
As the clock struck midnight, the sky exploded with a fireworks show of 100 computer-guided rockets costing £7 million (Rs 56 crore), seven times bigger than the largest display to date: that for the Beijing Olympics. More than a million fireworks were launched in about 10 minutes from over 700 locations as the merry band of the bold and the beautiful cheered on.
A spectacular fireworks display was followed by an incredible video illumination sequence, introduced by Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, who rose from the stage as the Goddess of Atlantis. Designed by Marie-Jeanne Gauthe, creative director for Jean Michel Jarre in Paris, the visual display used the 200-metre wide Royal Towers as a canvas to visualise the story of Atlantis.
Most were in happy spirit, aided undoubtedly by the approximately 1,000 bottles of Veuvre Cliquot champagne, which the Mail says was needed to wash down 1.7 metric tonnes of lobster, 4,000 oysters, 3,000 kg of smoked salmon and 5,000 portions of sushi.
But the devouring of wealth has raised a few eyebrows even in well-heeled Dubai, which too is feeling the pain of the global financial crisis. Prices of real estate on the much-vaunted Palm Jumeirah are plummeting.
“It’s not the perfect timing to open a £1-billion resort. On the other hand, we don’t build something like this with the short-term in mind,” said gaming and resort magnate Sol Kerzner, chairman and chief executive officer of Kerzner International, who made his name building South Africa’s Sun City.
“I believe Dubai will come to be one of the top destinations in the world.”
Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, kicked off a regional real estate boom when it opened the sector to private investment in 2002. (bharatspace)
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