The millions of lights that make up the Dubai Garden Glow – an attraction very visible to passengers and drivers of the thousands of vehicles that pass along Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road daily – have been reconfigured for a new season.
The Art Park is a fresh introduction to the Glow, vibrant installations covered in recycled material that took 200 artists two months to build.
A charging bull stands guard at the entrance to the Art Park leading to a mass of shining lights in a forest, depicting animals and plants in different shades and hues. Huge peacocks glitter and sparkle and a hooded cobra watches over a waterfall of lights over a cliff, while a panda mother and cub eat a lunch and a pair of swans glide past.
Around half-a-million glass and plastic bottles were used to create the fantastic installations, fed with different coloured water and 1,000 CDs were recycled into a shimmering herd of camels. The park also includes an elephant with a tusk made of porcelain cups, plates and spoons.
The rest of the park – which is becoming a major tourist attraction in the city – has also undergone a redesign. The combination of lights, colours and movement is drawing visitors by the thousand to the park. A huge tree has birds flapping their wings and moving their heads; the Water Set has been replaced by dinosaurs, fish and swans. The artworks are all reflected in water and further along a new gate is covered in brightly-lit butterflies and birds opening into the Flower Valley with hundreds of glowing birds.
Movement is a key element this year; flowers open and close, birds move, animals walk – even a herd of elephants. A tunnel has hanging fish leading to a children’s section where groups of rabbits, penguins, butterflies, mosquitoes and bugs are the attraction. And there are cannons shooting fireworks. The Glowing Safari features deer, giraffes, crocodiles and rhino.
