Dubai Events Calendar: What's On and What It Costs You

Four labels run through every entry below, and they mean different things to a booking.

• Confirmed — the organiser, venue operator or a UAE government source has published the dates and we read them there.
• Recurring — a fixed calendar date needing no announcement, such as 2 December or 31 December. The date is certain; the programme around it is not.
• Estimated — an Islamic lunar date calculated astronomically. The UAE confirms these by moon sighting, usually days beforehand, so they can move by a day or two.
• Dates to be announced — genuinely not published yet. We do not print a guess in this slot.

Demand is graded in four bands — peak, high, moderate and low — plus a rate season per month. Those are commercial judgement, not statistics, and the next section says exactly what they derive from.

One table, twelve rows. It is the answer to the question most people are actually asking when they search for what is on in Dubai.

The cool season runs November to March and it is the reason Dubai's rate calendar looks the way it does. January is the coolest month and one of the two best for being outdoors, with occasional rain and cool evenings. February is close to perfect on paper, though it is historically the wettest month on the older WMO station normals, so build a light weather contingency into outdoor programmes. March is the strongest all-round month: warm enough for the beach, cool enough for the desert and for walking a city tour on foot.

April is the pivot. Early April is still pleasant, the end of it is noticeably hot, rain effectively stops and peak rates begin to ease. It carries no confirmed anchor event in this dataset, which is precisely why it prices well. From May the heat is the itinerary: outdoor touring moves to early morning and evening, and both Global Village and Miracle Garden shut for the summer. June is rainless and very hot, July holds overnight lows above 30°C, and August is the hottest month on the 1991–2020 normals and the cheapest — the window for indoor attractions, waterparks and long-stay family programmes rather than desert touring. Our experiences pages flag which product survives a July afternoon and which does not.

September turns the corner late: business travel restarts, seasonal attractions begin reopening at the end of the month, and the sea is still close to its annual maximum. October is the month we recommend most often to clients who care about value — comfortable evenings, falling humidity, the seasonal parks back open and the MICE season restarting, all at shoulder rates. November brings the weather back in full and the calendar fills fast.

Peak-demand events

The Dubai Shopping Festival is the single biggest leisure demand block of the year, run by Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment and described by the UAE Government Media Office as the world's longest-running annual retail celebration of its kind. The 31st edition ran 5 December 2025 to 11 January 2026, thirty-eight days. The 32nd edition has not been announced, and the three contradictory ranges circulating on listing sites are not official. What matters operationally is the shape: rooms tighten from early December through the New Year, and minimum stays over the New Year weekend are normal rather than exceptional.

New Year's Eve is the highest-pressure night of the year. The date is fixed. The programme is not — viewing areas, Downtown access and anything running into early January are announced by the operators each year, usually from about November. Downtown and Palm view rooms sell out further ahead than any other date on the calendar, with minimum stays and gala dinner supplements attached.

UAE National Day falls on 2 and 3 December every year, and Dubai's citywide Eid Al Etihad programme runs 30 November to 3 December 2026; the 2027 programme is not announced. One thing agents get wrong regularly: 30 November is Commemoration Day, and it is an observance, not a public holiday. The UAE Government portal lists seven public holidays and this is not one of them. It is a day of remembrance — expect subdued entertainment programming, and do not tell a client it is a day off.

High and moderate demand events

• Festival of Lights, Dubai's Diwali programme, 2–12 November 2026. Centred on Meena Bazaar in Bur Dubai and the retail districts; a hard driver of Indian family and gold-buying traffic. 2027 is not announced, and Diwali moves with the Hindu lunar calendar.
• Dubai World Cup, Saturday 27 March 2027 at Meydan Racecourse. The 2026–2027 UAE racing season opens 22 October 2026 at Abu Dhabi Turf Club and runs to 64 race meetings across five racecourses.
• Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The 2026 edition ran 15–28 February at the stadium in Garhoud, a women's week then a men's. 2027 is not announced; historically a fortnight in the second half of February.
• Dubai Fitness Challenge, 10th edition 31 October to 29 November 2026. It closes Sheikh Zayed Road for the flagship ride and run days, which hits transfer timings rather than room blocks. The 11th edition is not announced.
• Dubai Marathon, Sunday 17 January 2027. The route had not been published when we checked, so we do not describe one.
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 4–6 December 2026 at Yas Marina Circuit, race Sunday 6 December, season finale. Yas Island sells out, so Dubai absorbs the overflow and Dubai-to-Yas transfers become a product in themselves. The 2027 calendar is not confirmed.
• Art Dubai. The 20th edition ran 14–17 May 2026 at Madinat Jumeirah, out of its traditional April slot. The 21st is not announced and April 2027 is genuinely uncertain.
• Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. The 18th edition ran 21–27 January 2026 at InterContinental Dubai Festival City. The next is not announced and the month itself is uncertain — do not pre-sell a January 2027 package.
• Dubai Esports and Games Festival, 8–24 May 2026; 2027 to be announced. Dubai Home Festival, 16 October to 1 November 2026 — minor for inbound leisure, useful as October colour.
• Dubai Summer Surprises, 29th edition 2 July to 30 August 2026: sixty days built specifically to make the hottest months sellable. The 30th edition is not announced.
• Dubai Food Festival has no forward dates. The brand does not appear in the official 2026 retail calendar, which we re-read on 29 July 2026.

Seasonal attractions, not events

Three of Dubai's best-known draws are winter seasons, not dated events, and all three close in summer. Global Village ran Season 30 from 15 October 2025 to 10 May 2026; the operator states Season 31 runs October 2026 to May 2027, but the exact opening date is not announced. Dubai Miracle Garden's 14th season is reported by the trade press as 29 September 2025 to 31 May 2026; the 15th season opening is not announced, and the operator's site blocked both our attempts to check. Sheikh Zayed Festival at Al Wathba in Abu Dhabi ran 1 November 2025 to 22 March 2026, daily 16:00 to midnight and to 01:00 at weekends and on public holidays, which suits a late-afternoon run from Dubai and a night return. Its 2026–2027 season is not announced.

October is when the whole seasonal machine restarts: WETEX on 20–22 October, Dubai Home Festival from 16 October, the racing season on 22 October, the Fitness Challenge on 31 October, and Global Village at some point in the month on a date nobody has published. If you are building an October itinerary, that last clause is the one that costs money. Our experiences pages carry the seasonal and desert product, and we confirm operating status per departure rather than per brochure.

Leisure demand is broad and slow. Trade demand is narrow, sharp and predictable, which makes it the more useful half of this page if you are contracting rather than travelling.

Arabian Travel Market sits at 14–17 September 2026 at Dubai World Trade Centre, open 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Wednesday and 10:00 to 17:00 on Thursday. That is not its long-standing April or May slot; anyone still working to spring dates has stale information. We confirmed the September dates on both the official ATM site and the DWTC listing, and RX's regional portfolio director has publicly linked the move to consultation with exhibitors and partners. ATM 2027 is not published. A May 2027 range circulates on third-party listings; we are not repeating it.

GITEX GLOBAL is the biggest single MICE room block in Dubai's year, and it has made two changes at once for 2026: the Scale Summit at Dubai World Trade Centre on 7 December, then the main expo 8–11 December at Expo City Dubai. The UAE Government Media Office frames the December move as a repositioning into Dubai's tourism season under the D33 agenda, and puts the event's age at 45 years. The organiser describes the new venue as 2.2 million square feet with more than 20,000 parking spaces — its figures, not ours. GITEX 2027 is not announced.

Gulfood runs 15–19 March 2027, and from that edition it is a dual-site show across Dubai World Trade Centre and the Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City, open 10:00 to 18:00 on 15–18 March and 10:00 to 17:00 on 19 March. The organiser publishes figures of 8,500-plus exhibitors and 195 countries. Two venues at opposite ends of the city is a transfer problem before it is anything else, and it lands in the same fortnight as the estimated Eid al-Fitr window.

• Big 5 Global, 23–26 November 2026 at Dubai World Trade Centre, with seven co-located shows. The organiser projects more than 85,000 attendees and says 77% of them are decision-makers — its own projections, not audited results. 2027 is not announced.
• Dubai International Boat Show, 25–29 November 2026 at Dubai Harbour. The organiser describes the November slot as a permanent repositioning. It overlaps Big 5 Global almost exactly.
• WETEX, 20–22 October 2026 at Dubai World Trade Centre, organised by DEWA, with the World Green Economy Summit running concurrently at the same venue. A delegate block while rates are still at shoulder. 2027 is not announced.
• Dubai Airshow, 15–19 November 2027 at Dubai World Central. The official site lists 2027 as the next edition after 2025, so there is no 2026 show — which makes that week of November 2027 materially heavier than the same week in 2026. It is the most confidently datable 2027 trade event we hold.

The UAE Government portal lists seven public holidays. Two are fixed: New Year's Day and the two-day National Day on 2 and 3 December. The other five are Islamic lunar dates, confirmed by moon sighting and announced by the UAE Cabinet, which means nobody can give you a booking-grade date for them a year out.

Ramadan 1448 is expected to begin around 8 February 2027 and end around 8 March 2027, estimated, with the crescent searched for after sunset on 7 February. That puts most of a normally peak February inside the fasting period — a real change of character from February 2026. Daytime dining and alcohol service are restricted, attraction hours shift, live entertainment is scaled back and tour timings move. Iftar and suhoor experiences and Ramadan tents become the headline product instead, and demand typically softens mid-month before the Eid spike. Brief clients honestly rather than steering them away from the period.

Eid al-Fitr 1448 is estimated at 9–11 March 2027, following the UAE rule that the holiday covers 1 to 3 Shawwal. Eid al-Adha 1448 is estimated at 17–19 May 2027, with Arafah Day the day before — we publish that as a relationship rather than a date, because it is derived from the Eid estimate rather than sourced independently. Together they make a four-day block, one of the longest in the UAE year. The Islamic New Year and the Prophet Muhammad's birthday are both public holidays, and we carry no 2027 Gregorian date for either because none could be sourced.

One fixed date worth planning around: 1 January 2027 falls on a Friday, which extends the New Year weekend and lengthens stays at the very top of the peak.

August 2026 is the cheapest month in this window: indoor-weighted product only, and the two big seasonal parks shut. September is low-to-shoulder on paper, but Arabian Travel Market drops a major trade block into a normally quiet month and tightens hotels near Sheikh Zayed Road earlier than usual. October is the season restart at shoulder rates. November is already peak, and its last week carries two large trade shows at once.

December 2026 is the hardest month in the window and the reason this page exists. GITEX's move out of October is new for 2026, and it is what turns a difficult month into a severe one.

January 2027 stays at peak, with New Year's Day on a Friday and the marathon on Sunday 17 January. February reads as peak on paper, but Ramadan from around 8 February changes what the month actually is. March is the tightest fortnight of the first half of 2027: the estimated Eid al-Fitr window on 9–11 March, Gulfood across two venues on 15–19 March, then the Dubai World Cup on Saturday 27 March. April is shoulder, with excellent weather early and no confirmed anchor event — the best value-for-comfort trade in the year. May is shoulder with a four-day Eid al-Adha block in the middle and the seasonal parks closing. June to September 2027 is deep low season, August cheapest again.

October 2027 should be another seasonal restart, but no 2027 dates are confirmed for any of it. November 2027 is peak and heavier than November 2026, because the Dubai Airshow returns on 15–19 November. December 2027 is peak with extreme crowds again; National Day falls Thursday to Friday, making a long weekend, and the Grand Prix and GITEX dates are both still to be announced.

Where you stay matters as much as when. In the December fortnight a Downtown room is priced by the New Year's Eve view whether or not you want it, while Deira, Garhoud and Bur Dubai behave differently. Our hotels pages set out what we contract and what sits next to what. We quote against your dates rather than publishing a rate grid, because a grid would be out of date by the time you read it.

This is the list a listings site will not publish. Each line is a genuine gap as at 29 July 2026, with when we will look again.

• Dubai Shopping Festival, 32nd edition — not announced; three contradictory ranges circulate. We re-check the official retail calendar from late October 2026, when the following year's calendar has historically appeared.
• Global Village Season 31 — only the October 2026 to May 2027 window is official, not the opening date. Re-checked monthly from September 2026.
• Dubai Miracle Garden, 15th season — opening date not announced, and the operator's site blocked us. Re-checked each September.
• Art Dubai 2027 — not announced on any primary source. Two contradictory ranges circulate; we rejected both. Re-checked quarterly.
• Arabian Travel Market 2027 — not on the official site, and we will not publish the circulating May 2027 range. Re-checked once the September 2026 edition closes.
• Dubai Duty Free Tennis 2027 — not announced. Emirates LitFest — next edition not announced and the month itself uncertain. Both re-checked quarterly.
• GITEX GLOBAL 2027, Big 5 Global 2027, WETEX 2027 and the 2027 Formula 1 calendar — all unannounced. Re-checked quarterly.
• UAE public holiday dates for 2027 — the Cabinet has not issued them. We hold the general Hijri rules plus astronomical estimates, nothing firmer. Re-checked on each Cabinet announcement.
• Dubai Food Festival — absent from the official 2026 retail calendar entirely. No dates until the organiser publishes them.
• Monthly visitor arrivals — the official tourism performance pages block automated access, so our crowd column rests on annual figures and the December record rather than a full monthly series.

Forever Journeys Tours LLC is a licensed Dubai DMC, established in 2016, head office in Bur Dubai, with branches in Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Kullu. This is the calendar our reservations desk works to. It is why we contract December allocation in the spring, and why we will not sell an early-October departure on a Global Village promise until the operator publishes a date.

Send us your dates and we will tell you what is running, what is closed, what is provisional and what it does to availability — then quote against it. Travellers can ask for a plan; agents can ask for net rates. Use the contact page and give us the window. Our events page lists the same dates, maintained on the same schedule as this article.