There's a festival for just about everything isn't there? Having covered the entertainment beat across the UAE for the best part of a decade, it has become obvious to me, as I am sure it has to everyone else, that if you want to celebrate trainers there's SoleDXB. Love books? There are actually three events suitable for that – in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah – each one packed with millions of tomes. If it's Chinese New Year, Swiss National Day or Fiesta de los Muertos, yep, you guessed it, there's a festival for those, too.
It is for this reason that I wasn’t super-surprised when it was announced that something called The Big Grill Festival was to have its first outing at Yas Links Golf Club.
Dubbed a celebration of all things smoky and meat, I figured I should pay a visit and get some tips on how to up my George Foreman grilling game. “There are plenty of YouTube tutorials,” one of the attendants at the Jamaica Shack told me as he prepared my jerk chicken plate. “You can even make this jerk chicken on the Foreman, you just need to find the right sauces.”
I came across another vendor who was fielding more serious enquiries. Aadil Datta was representing a company that imports wood for use on barbecues or for camping. He explained to me some of the key points he was pushing to potential customers. “Education is needed when it comes to barbecues,” he said wisely. “When it comes to the fire, I tell people that oak, because of its scent, is best. Burcher wood is for camping.”
I don’t think Datta would have minded that most of those who attended the inaugural Big Grill Festival had done so for completely selfish reasons, though, which probably had nothing to do grilling. And for many, it was just another one of those fun family days out that Abu Dhabi has come to specialise in.
The one stand that had no love at all from the punters, however, was that of a hospital whose staff were offering free diabetes check-ups. While their good intentions were noble, their stand clearly wasn’t in the vibe of the rest of the festivities and it was being avoided at all costs.
Nevertheless, this event offered up a wonderfully communal atmosphere that truly celebrates the diversity of the city. Sitting on the beanbags on the grass were – refreshingly – not the usual concert crowd. There were Lebanese and Filipino families, a large group of South Africans and Italian students. And they all came together in the last hour of the festival to enjoy the reggae vibes of American band Big Mountain. It was positively joyous to see families who probably rarely go to a concert as a unit, dancing along without a worry in the world.
“We may not always have the super-big events in Abu Dhabi, but one thing I know is that it will be family-friendly,” said Kareem, who lives in Khalidiyah, and who had joined in the fun with his wife and toddler.
“When you have a family, that’s what you want really; places that are safe and that we can all enjoy.”
And from the festivals that take place at Umm Al Emarat Park to the capital’s latest green space, Reem Central Park, Abu Dhabi continues to offer just this, appealing to families in a whole host of different ways that never get old.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
PSL FINAL
Multan Sultans v Peshawar Zalmi
8pm, Thursday
Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
